Memorial Day Weekend Pt. 1: The Nisqually Chute
We try to plan a ski trip for every Memorial Day weekend since a long weekend at the end of May lends itself well to big spring ski tours. This year was no exception. We initially set the weekend aside as a potential Rainier summit attempt via the Emmons, but on Thursday the Rainier climbing rangers posted a blog post detailing how sketchy the route currently is. Recent snow created shallow snow bridges over big crevasses, and there were reports of highly capable parties taking their skis off and belaying each other down the most precarious sections. This did not sound like something we wanted to do, so we looked for other options. After quite a bit of waffling, we decided to keep it chill for the weekend and go on a couple of half day ski tours in Mt. Rainier National Park.
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Mt. Garibaldi via Brohm Ridge Attempt
This has been the spring of attempting ski tours that have been on my radar for awhile, but for whatever reason were pushed to the back burner while we prioritized other trips. Mt. Garibaldi, just outside of Squamish, was on that list. Its steep NE face is an alluring ski line and the surrounding Coast Mountains make it a beautiful tour.
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Sahale Spring Ski Tour
I’ve visited Sahale twice in the past, once in fall and once in summer and on both those trips I marveled at the views, but I also wondered what the area looks like blanketed in snow. I put the idea of a Sahale ski tour in the back of my mind and waited for the right conditions. Our friends Adam and Meredith own a property on Cascade River Road and Adam mentioned earlier this year that he really wanted to ski Sahale too, so we put it at the top of our list and waited for a good forecast. This past weekend was forecasted to be favorable, clear skies at night to ensure a solid refreeze and sunny during the day for (fingers crossed) good corn. After years of Sahale being an idea in the back of our minds, it was finally going to become a reality.
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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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July Turns: Steamboat Prow and the Inter Glacier
During our Olympus climb Sander, Dan, and I talked about trying to climb/ski Mt. Rainier via the Emmons Glacier during the long Fourth of July weekend if the conditions were right. We thought it would be the perfect cherry on top of an incredible ski season. Unfortunately, the conditions were not right and a huge heat wave was forecasted to sweep through the state with highs in the 80s and 90s over the weekend and a freezing level above 16,000’. We didn’t want to climb the mountain during such an intense period of heat but we also didn’t want to let a long weekend go by without at least a little adventure so we pivoted to a day trip to Steamboat Prow and a ski of the Inter Glacier.
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