Middle Sister Up and Over
This past weekend Alex and I made a bit of a last minute decision to drive all the way to Sisters, OR to climb and ski Middle Sister. We had this tour slated as a potential Memorial Day trip, but when all of Washington looked gloomy over the weekend, I searched for sunnier locations. There was always the option of staying home and having a chill weekend, especially after being in Alaska the previous two weekends, but spring ski season is short and if we could get out there, I wanted to get out there.
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Thompson Pass - Stairway Chutes
Our overall gloomy weather with brief windows in Thompson Pass continued on Friday, and our group decided to take advantage of it and head out on another bigger tour. This time we had our sights set on Stairway Chutes. Just 2,000' from Highway 4 lies a cirque encased in couloirs and chutes. To the east is the imposing Mt. Dimond, with steep couloirs pouring off its flanks and to the west is the area known as the Stairway Chutes. Much of the rock near Thompson Pass is tilted on an edge, creating stacked lines of perfect chutes of differing difficulties. Some are narrower, some are shorter, some are wider, some are STEEP.
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Thompson Pass - Cracked Ice
Last spring, Alex and I went on a spring ski trip to Valdez/Thompson Pass with our friends Meredith and Adam, and while we had a great time exploring Alaska in the winter with them, we also had less-than-ideal weather conditions while there. We were pretty limited on what tours we could complete due to terrible vis, high winds, and avalanche conditions and ended up leaving the trip feeling like we had unfinished business. Fast forward to this year, and we decided to book another spring trip to Thompson Pass.
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A Bluebird Rogers Pass Tour: Youngs Peak
In mid-February Alex and I went on a dream ski trip with a great group of friends. We embarked on the famous Canadian Powder Highway, driving some 1,500 miles through beautiful British Columbia and skiing at some of the best resorts the province and the country have to offer. The route also took us straight through Rogers Pass, a backcountry ski mecca in its own right. We had three days booked in the Revelstoke/Rogers Pass area and hoped that one of the days would allow for a bigger objective in the Rogers Pass backcountry. We got lucky and on our final day in the area the forecast was calling for clear skies, calm conditions, and a mostly favorable avalanche forecast. We were going on a tour!
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Trail Running the Stiletto-Copper Pass Loop
Alex and I had planned for our summer/fall hiking season to end with our Ice Lakes backpacking trip the first weekend of October. We thought it would be the perfect way to wrap up the season with a larch-yellow bow. Then we saw the forecast for the second weekend of October and knew we had to squeeze in just one more trip. The forecast was downright summer-like with clear skies and highs in the 60s. Alex needed to leave for a work trip on Sunday so we couldn’t go on another backpacking trip, but we could get out on a day hike or trail run on Saturday.
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A Larch Loop through Glacier Peak Wilderness
Every fall, Washingtonians flood to the mountains for two to three weeks each October to embark on an annual “larch march”. During this brief window of time, the needles of larch trees in the high alpine turn from green to a vibrant shade of yellow before dropping entirely for the winter. They are among a few species of conifers that drop their needles annually and they do it in such a vivid display of color that people from all over come to see the spectacle. It’s tough to nail the timing of the larch trees turning. It’s a narrow window and can shift depending on seasonal weather patterns, but when you are able to get the timing right the scenes are jaw-dropping. I try to go on a larch march once a year, but I don’t think I’ve ever got the timing quite right. I would either be too early and the trees would still be slightly green, or I’d go too late and entire stands of larches would be brown or naked. Those hikes were still undoubtedly beautiful, but I felt as if I wasn’t getting that experience that so many other larch-lovers get. Until this year.
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Trail Running the High Divide Loop
A few weeks ago Alex and I had a three day weekend planned with the intention of climbing Luna Peak, a mountain I’ve been dreaming of climbing for years now. As our trip dates approached the forecast grew increasingly wetter, with possible snow forecasted for the summit of Luna. That trip was off the table so I looked around the region hoping to find someplace with a more favorable forecast, but everywhere I looked I just found more wet weather. It looked like we weren’t going to be able to do a backpacking trip after all, but Sunday was looking clear, especially in the Olympics and I got the wild idea that maybe we could squeeze a traditional backpacking trip into a day trip.
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Journey to the Chilliwacks
The Chilliwacks are small cluster of peaks located in the northern-most reaches of North Cascades National Park. In fact, they are so far north the trail actually starts in Canada before crossing the border and entering the park. These peaks are known for their ruggedness and remoteness, and like any other rugged and remote places they are not easy to reach. I have had my eyes on a trip to the Chilliwacks since I first saw a photo of Silver Lake in a blog post years ago—which pivotal blog post I saw that photo in has since faded from my memory, but that image of the lake has stayed with me ever since.
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