My first circumnavigation of Chair Peak was in February of 2013 and went clockwise, finishing across Snow Lake. Colin suggested going counterclockwise this time and cutting off the Snow Lake portion with the direct route near Chair Peak itself.
We left Seattle at about 6:45am and started our tour at 8am. It was already hot in the open sections with the sun beating down and isothermal, sloppy snow already. The first section brought us up about 2,000 feet to the shoulder of Chair Peak in about 1 hour and 40 minutes. We stopped for a snack and transitioned to ski mode. The skiing was pretty horrendous breakable crust and wet slide avalanche debris most of the way down to the West edge of Snow Lake, but it was still fun given the ambiance.
We started back up about 2 hours and 15 minutes into our day, making our way up increasingly wet snow beneath Roosevelt, but never seeing significant instability. This climb was about 1,000 feet and we reached the saddle above Chair Peak Lake about 3 hours and 15 minutes from the car. We sat here and had lunch, basking in the warm sun and soaking up the mountain views. Rather than ski down the short pitch to the lake, we traversed on skins down, then across the lake and up to the saddle below Kaleetan just under 4 hours from the car. From here, it was a quick side-hill traverse in ski mode down near Melakwa Lake where we put the skins on for the last time and made our way up to the Bryant col about 4 hours and 45 minutes in.
Given the very warm conditions and clear wet slide debris in Bryant Couloir that we could see earlier in the day, we opted for the safer descent over the shoulder of Bryant. The first few turns were pretty buttery even if they were heavy and the skiing had its moments down into the standard Pineapple Pass descent and then back out the trail to the car. We were back just shy of 5 hours and 20 minutes after leaving the car.
Great day to be outside with a good friend even if the skiing was pretty poor!