TR Replies

cchapin

April 27, 2015, Fortune and South Ingalls

Actually that's reversed. Ingalls Pass trail up and Esmeralda down. We split off the trail proper to Ingalls Pass ~500' below it and traversed N-NW towards Fortune. Once you gain the E Ridge of Fortune just past Lake Camp Fire Girls, it's not quite continuously skinnable since there are a few places to scramble. On descent, there's about 1500' of shwacking before you reach the Esmeralda trail proper.

5/2/15 5:46am

Chamois

April 27, 2015, Fortune and South Ingalls

Esmeralda Trial, up, down, up, down Ingalls---- got it! Thanks

5/1/15 3:37am

radka

April 27, 2015, Fortune and South Ingalls

Here:

4/30/15 7:19am

Chamois

April 27, 2015, Fortune and South Ingalls

Nice -- what was your route for accessing Fortune

4/30/15 6:18am

myikat

Muir snowfield/ Sun April 26

Mack, you're right behind me.

4/30/15 4:46am

dmarzilli

April 26, 2015, MRNP Nisqually Icefall

Awesome shot!

4/30/15 1:17am

Norseman

April 26, 2015, MRNP Nisqually Icefall

From a little below Anvil on the Paradise G:

4/30/15 1:16am

Jake the Brit

April 26, 2015, Birthday Tour, WA Pass

Nice pics 'Trees. Thanks

4/29/15 2:43pm

DOD

April 26, 2015, Hoadl

....I thought they had metric in europe ;-)??
loving the trip reports Silas!!

4/29/15 1:45pm

ADappen

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

Dan, Sorry to miss the tour around Ingalls Peak/Lake with you all. Sounded like a good one.
Norseman, good point... I think... what was it you were getting at?

4/29/15 6:23am

telemack

Muir snowfield/ Sun April 26

Good job ol' man.

4/29/15 5:54am

Floater

Muir snowfield/ Sun April 26

A year like this is tough on us older guys. You really need to be skinning about two to three times a week once you go over 60. At 66 it really becomes critical to be out as much as you can and to be breaking trail. In a good year I am weighing at this time 152 this year 162. This happens every time there is a bad season like this. I hope next year we have a Dec-Mar like we used to have in the 1960s, cold and snowy.

4/29/15 3:33am

Atraslin

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Wild line, in a season of highs and lows.
Cool to see you guys ski your dream line.
In pure and human powered style. Under the
Radar, just like the mighty North Cascades.

4/28/15 7:16am

avajane

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

The definitions of "skiable" and "climbable" are always changing. It's very cool to be able to be on a site that has people pushing the limits and still finding ways to do "new" things in areas that have been played in for decades. Congratulations on a beautiful, impossible looking line! You should get free beers for some time!!!

4/28/15 5:56am

Roger Strong

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Fantastic you guys and thanks for sharing the inspiring TR!

4/27/15 10:25pm

mattfirth

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

I've been looking at that face for decades and never thought I'd see a ski descent. Strong work - congratulations.

4/27/15 3:55pm

nordique

Quick Rainier weekend report

Thanks for the very valuable report! A very impressive obstacle!

4/27/15 2:33pm

bfree32

Quick Rainier weekend report

Nice to meet you in the parking lot afterwards.

For those interested, here is the massive crevasse that has been stopping quite a few parties on the Ingraham at 12,300. It essentially spans the whole glacier, and it looks like the only passage is a ramp slightly lower that gains the DC. It is probably approaching 100 feet wide on the climber's left side near Gib Rock, where passage was possible earlier this winter. Navigation on the untracked slopes higher up also looked challeng...

4/27/15 1:33pm

dwayne

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Wow! You guys put the hard in hardcore! We kept looking over there wondering how it was going. Awesome to hear it went well.

Too bad about the ski. Hopefully DPS will take care of you. I doubt they would help me if my 99s broke due to the quantity of mounting holes.

4/27/15 12:25pm

Big Steve

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Excellent! Nice to meet you guys. We figured you'd pull it off.

4/26/15 10:04pm

jtack

April 20-23, 2015, Tirolean Sellrain

Silas, thanks for the great Euro skiing story, have you been in this area before? After a chat with Mike R. I think I might be able to post a picture from Facebook, but my plate has been too full to spend any time on it. But now, I just look over Polly's sholder to see your pictures! You lucky dog, ridding the wave of a depressed Euro to boot!

4/26/15 2:12pm

Kenji

April 19, 2015, Stars at Washignton Pass

Stefan, nice meeting you and your neighbor friend (sorry, forgot her name). Nice shots, looks like you guys had a great trip Sunday and better skiing than ours. Yes we did see the paraglider as we were leaving the alpine.

Hope I didn't disturb your sleep too much...

4/26/15 1:58pm

cumulus

April POW! (Video)

yah, bananas! (I'll keep my eyes peeled)

looked like sweet snow and some really sweet lines, nice vid!

4/26/15 5:38am

cumulus

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

sweet capture you two! (or is it rapture?)

I like the golf club idea Eric, why not do it all, a little post Goode hwy 20 golf excursion to go along with the cigar...

wait. that's almost as bad as daveb's comment.

4/26/15 4:00am

cumulus

April 19, 2015, Stars at Washignton Pass

nice pics Kenji! good to see what all the lights blinking mysteriously in the snowy meadow in the middle of the night came to be...

Did you see the paraglider late afternoon? it went right over us then disappeared beyond Silver Star.

hope you don't mind if I add a few pics. such a beautiful day, fantastic views!

4/26/15 1:27am

Norseman

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

author=ADappen link=topic=34177.msg141001#msg141001 date=1429796839]

The bummer about our rules of engagement: The objective becomes so much harder with each passing decade: At 90 slaying 9 nine-thousand peaks in a day is gonna be a bitch.

Chuckled at this one. Better make the plans soon, too, lest one forgets.

4/25/15 1:59pm

Norseman

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Great line, duders.

4/25/15 1:39pm

kamtron

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

It's the lower col that appears to have a cornice in that pic, and the bottom is obscured by the cloud.

4/25/15 12:20pm

danpeck

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

Skiing with Tom the weekend prior to this I heard rumors that this might occur. Nice to see it done!

Thanks for all the inspiration and stoke in your 60 years.

4/25/15 6:58am

discostew

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

gnarly... the last pic in your picasa album with the caption "our line drops from the col immediately right of the summit.":

i don't see anything remotely skiable right of the summit!

4/24/15 9:15pm

ADappen

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

I envy you those 11 years, Griff. Enjoy 'em!

4/24/15 3:09pm

LukerBee

shuksan headwall of hanging glacier and nwc

Great clip of the snowboarder at 4:45 - sets a fine backcountry line.

4/24/15 5:59am

Amar Andalkar

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

In any given storm system, Crystal can certainly get more snow than Chinook Pass, it's more of a cumulative averaging effect that makes the snowpack gradient obvious. In particular, storms with strong NW flow tend to hit Crystal hard, as the flow gets channeled upslope by the White River valley and there is no rain-shadowing effect from Rainier. Storm systems which track east along the WA/OR border and Columbia Gorge also tend to hit Crystal hard, with wrap-around moisture in a SE flow also...

4/24/15 3:30am

MW88888888

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

The Coda to that story is almost as mind blowing as the terrain up high. The ski breaking could have happened at worse times during your trip. I'm sure you've reflected on that in the cold dark night.

Inspired skiing. Great write up. Memorable.

4/24/15 3:23am

Griff

shuksan headwall of hanging glacier and nwc

Great vid man. I love seeing movies with soul. And what great freakin' skiing. Yes, this is now on my list of things to do!

4/24/15 2:51am

Griff

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

Congrats on the tour! I hope to say the same in 11 years on 4/22/26.

Great info Amar, data to support my experience at Crystal (especially when I taught full-time in the 80s). Now, that said, there are times it gets more. Rare but true. Can you explain that???

4/24/15 2:22am

Bronco

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

I admit that I'm having a hard time seeing the line you skied, partially due to the fact that it looks impossibly steep in the photos. Also, having thrutched up the NE Butt route a few summers ago, I can't imagine many skiable lines on that face of Goode, holy crap! Can you draw the route on a photo?

Anyway, congrats on a very cool FD on a sweet mountain in a spectacular area! 8)

4/24/15 2:17am

hedonaut

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Thanks all for sharing the stoke, it was too much for my puny heart to contain, glad you enjoyed the story. I forgot to add the sad ending: skiing the hard snow through the final trees to the Rainy Pass trailhead, a random hard trough spelled the end of my trusty Wailer 99s. One of the skis broke in front of the toepiece :'( -- although to its credit I didn't notice 'til we were back at the car. Nothing a good cry, a beer and a cigar couldn't fix.

Amar: haha, n...

4/24/15 2:04am

Jason_H.

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Awesome! I was looking at that line last time I was below that face. Very awe-inspiring place to be. Way to go guys.

4/24/15 1:49am

Lowell_Skoog

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Congratulations on a safe and successful trip.

I don't think that couloir gets climbed very often. I climbed the upper part of the couloir in June 1985 with Mark Bebie. We did what Beckey's green guide calls the 1978 Mendenhall-Ferrens variation, which climbs the ice sheet of the lower NE Face, then traverses rightward into the couloir. From the NW notch, we continued to the summit via the NW Buttress route. (Beckey lists our route as different from the 1978 climb, but I don...

4/24/15 1:22am

ADappen

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

Amar, Thanks for that snow-shadowing bit. Interesting to see such dramatic differences on peaks of the same height during the same tour.

4/23/15 10:09pm

danpeck

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Good style! Thanks for posting such a special adventure.

4/23/15 2:32pm

eze

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Such a great weekend and write-up -- thanks E$

Been feeding off of the stoke of a grand north cascades adventure, and trying to feed the cranking metabolism it left me with all week.

We remarked several times of the fortune in what has seemed an unfortunate year... early highway opening opened an unexpectedly bigger window to get deep in the north cascades before the big warmups that make that an even more formidable task.

Looks like the cool temps this week...

4/23/15 2:29pm

flowing alpy

19apr2015, santa fe alpine

Me too sky, glad the science lab is letting the scholars out for some freshest.

4/23/15 12:44pm

Amar Andalkar

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

author=tabski link=topic=34176.msg141025#msg141025 date=1429810595]
Another one bites the dust.

Now where?

4/23/15 12:36pm

ryanl

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Wowzers!! Love that shot of EZ traversing at top. Congrats again you two.

4/23/15 11:41am

tabski

19 April 2015, Goode Mtn NW couloir open 4 business

Another one bites the dust.

Now where?

4/23/15 8:00am

FreeBird

April 21, 2015, Naches Peak

We were there too :)
Think we saw you in the flats while we were on top...
Snow is going fast.

4/23/15 7:41am

Amar Andalkar

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

author=ADappen link=topic=34177.msg141001#msg141001 date=1429796839]
Around noon we moved over to the north side of Chinook Pass and were surprised that peaks that were only two miles distant from the morning peaks had so much less snow (though better consolidated snow). We had to hunt-and-peck for pads of snow taking us upward and had to shoulder the skis a number of times. Before arrival I thought we would easily make six of the peaklets we had identified bu...

4/23/15 7:28am

Zap

April 19, 2015, Chinook Pass, Six-0 Tour

Andy,

Thanks for providing the insight of a 60 year old on your 'birthday' tour. I’m glad you posted this on April 23. When I skied the northwest slopes at Naches Peak on the 21st, I kept saying to myself that I should go to the east and north facing slopes, but my 68 year old body is not up dealing with the frozen snow (forgot the crampons), dropping through the unfrozen slope, avoiding the frozen balls, and saying I should have been here earlier. I think Jill and I will...