Skiing down beneath Colfax Peak’s icefall

Coleman-Deming on Mount Baker

May 4, 2019

Colin and Jen were headed up for Jen’s first time on Baker this weekend and I decided to tag along. We drove up Friday night pretty late, arriving just below the trailhead at midnight. A 5am wakeup had us moving at about 5:30am in trail runners with skis and boots on our backs.

The road had some snow on it, but much of the trail was bare or too patchy to skin, so we were glad to wear shoes until the normal clearing at the base of Heliotrope Ridge where we switched to skis. It was icy enough in the early morning that we needed ski crampons to get up the ridge, but things softened quickly in the sun and we took the ski crampons off after gaining the ridge.

We took a direct line through the flat camp area while most folks were going high—this saved us some time. We were at the saddle at about 9:45am and switched to boots and crampons here as the ridge looked pretty icy and not worth skinning. This was the right call. I put my head down through the Roman Wall and got to the summit at 11:30am on the dot. I’d gone quickly enough that I decided to wait for Colin and Jen so we could ski down together, but got cold up there in increasing winds, so I skied down to the saddle to wait in a warmer spot, running into them on the way and letting them know.

The Roman Wall was pretty icy up high for the first 500 feet or so, but then softened up a little bit and was more enjoyable. Skiing from the saddle down to our shoes was much more fun, particularly in the middle where there was a great corn harvest. It got a bit wet and heavy down low, but never terrible, even with my matchstick 78-waist skis. The hike out went easily and we were back at the car around 3:30pm.

Worm Flows on Mount Saint Helens 2019

March 10, 2019

With a beautiful forecast and low avalanche danger despite some relatively new snow, Colin suggested a group of us head down to ski Saint Helens. We left Seattle around 5:30am, departing from the car a bit later than many other people at just shy of 10am but still well in the thick of the throngs of folks up there that day.

We made good time on the way up, reaching the crater rim in just over 3.5 hours. It was blustery and cold at the rim, so we didn’t stay long and opted to descend a bit to a sunny, calm bench where we ate lunch before skiing the rest of the way down and out to the car. It was a perfect time of year to do it, with continuous snow all the way from the parking lot, but a well-plowed access road and an easy skin track the whole way.

Ruby Mountain

January 26, 2019

With another high-pressure forecast and relatively stable snow conditions, Kelsey and I agreed to get back out for another backcountry objective, prioritizing views and trying to optimize for snow conditions on a north-facing aspect.

We left Seattle at 6am on Saturday morning and departed the car at the Ross Dam Trailhead right at 9am. We skinned the road and were able to skin a little ways up the Happy Creek trail before deciding it was too thin and that we needed to pack our skis. We paralleled the highway for a ways on the trail and realized we should have just stayed on the road much farther and connected with the trail where it was only 30 feet from the road before turning south. A set of boot tracks doing exactly that made it even more clear.

We booted through the forest to the South, following a trail for a ways and then going cross country until we reached about 3,200 feet where the snow was continuous enough to start skinning. We followed a skin track for a bit before running into a party of 2 headed up for Ruby and planning to overnight it. We chatted with them for a ways and slogged together through the stickiest snow I’ve ever experienced, making each ski feel like a 20-pound weight.

The other party eventually peeled off to set up camp while we continued up, finding better snow up high, but still needing to put a lot of energy into breaking trail. The snow was quite stable and we stuck mostly to ridges on the way up until we decided to take the path of least resistance through a low-angle gully. The final headwall to reach the summit ridge looked steep from below, but wasn’t too bad once we were on it. I got into a rhythm for the last 2,000 feet of vertical or so and just put my head down to break trail—it was a great workout!

As we neared the top, the views were awesome. Ross Lake appeared like a fjord below us and all of our favorite North Cascades peaks were visible. We reached the summit in 5.5 hours despite our errant trail choice at the beginning and trail breaking, which we were pretty happy with. It was breathless on top and we hung out for a bit to soak it in before gearing up for the descent.

The skiing was tough. It was pretty heavy and necessitated sitting way in the back seat to be able to turn. Lower down, we experienced the sticky snow again, which was mind-bogglingly sticking to my bases and making it nearly impossible to go down (guess I need to wax my skis, eh?). Trying to get away from the sticky snow, we traversed to the West, which got us onto snow we could slide on, but took us through tight trees and spit us out above a steep section we had to down-climb. Oh well.

Some more survival skiing got us to where we’d transitioned on the way up and an easy walk through the forest and on the road got us to the car at about 6pm, just over 9 hours after starting. Beautiful day!