Oyster Couloir on Wright Mountain

January 29, 2022

It had been too long since I’d gotten some quality mountain time in, so when the forecast looked decent on Saturday, Kelsey and I decided to get out there no matter how “firm” the snow might be. After doing a bit of research, we decided to do a ski tour back to Wright Mountain, near Gem Lake and Snow Lake at Snoqualmie Pass, aiming to climb the Oyster Couloir on its West Face and then ski down the South Face to Gem Lake.

Leaving the car at 8:30am, the skin track was quite icy up to Source Lake and we made good use of ski crampons to reach the saddle above Snow Lake, but things otherwise got better from there. We made it to the far ridge line above Snow Lake near Wright Mountain in a little over 3 hours and did a quick ski descent and traverse over to the Western flank of the mountain at about 4,600 feet. From here, we put the skis on our backs, put crampons on, and pulled out the tools.

The couloir was never steep enough to need two tools, but it was engaging enough to be fun. After about 500 vertical feet of climbing, we topped out the couloir at a short rocky step that wasn’t terribly steep, but it was pretty exposed below and quite crumbly. We searched around a bit to pick our way through this as gingerly as we could before pulling over the lip and onto the easy slope to the summit about 5 hours into our day.

After lunch on top, the ski down the South Face had actually corned up and we had a lot of fun getting back down to Snow Lake. A quick skin back across and up the saddle brought us to the ice luge part of our day. Everything from here down to Source Lake was an ice sheet and scraping down it sounded like we’d engaged the afterburners. At least it was a quick way out! We were back at the car just over 7 hours after we’d started, enjoying oat sodas in the Alpental parking lot.

Emmons Glacier on Rainier Car to Car

June 26, 2021

With an unprecedented heat wave hitting the Pacific Northwest, it seemed one place to escape the heat was up high. Temperatures were expected to reach crazy levels on Sunday and Monday, so Colin and I decided to go for a single-day ascent of the Emmons, leaving the car earlier than I ever had before—10pm on Friday night.

It wasn’t quite fully dark when we started off, which started the surreal experience. Thankfully, the temperature was pleasant at that time and the moon was full, bathing the mountain in soft, white light and making the glaciers pop against a darkening night sky.

We made it to the moraine at the base of the Interglacier in about 1h and 40min and decided to take a 20-minute nap there since we were ahead of schedule. I drifted off for a few minutes after taking in the starry sky.

We left our trail runners on the moraine and put on our skis. The snow had firmed back up, but wasn’t icy, which led to pretty efficient skinning. From the base of the moraine, we made it to Camp Curtis in about 2h 20min. The descent down to the lower Emmons Glacier was partially dry. We roped up there and were able to easily follow the cattle path around large crevasses to Camp Schurman about 6h after we’d left the car.

We were able to skin quite a ways up the Emmons, through most of The Corridor to about 11,500 feet. The rest of our ascent was straightforward with skis on our backs, booting up at a measured (and slowing) pace. The bergschrund was open across the face, but still a small enough gap that we could reach over and make a big high step to cross the chasm. The route topped out on the crater a little ways away from the summit and we decided it was worth walking over without our packs. We arrived as the only ones at the top at 10:45am, just shy of 13 hours after we’d started. The wind was ripping as usual up there and I had a bit of a headache from the altitude, so we didn’t stay long.

As my friend Dale says, “volcanoes are for skiing.” We clicked in on the crater rim and proceeded to enjoy somewhat-heavy corn skiing right from the top. “Hucking our meat” over the small vertical bergschrund gap was pretty fun. It only took an hour and a bit to get back to Camp Schurman. We rested a bit and chatted up the climbing rangers there before heading down the lower Emmons, booting up to Camp Curtis, and then getting our second ski run in down the Interglacier. It was nearly 1pm at the top of the Interglacier and we were nervous it would be a mashed potato mess, but it ended up being the best corn skiing of the day. We passed a number of conga lines of parties headed up as we whooped our way down.

We were able to ski all the way to our shoes at 6,100 feet and it only took 20 minutes to ski the whole thing. The hike out in short shorts was not as painful as I’d expected it to be and we made it to the car at about 3pm. The timing of the whole trip felt surreal—there was still a lot of day left. We weren’t trying to rush and our time at a little over 17 hours certainly wasn’t breaking any records, but it was fun to go fast(er) and light and experience the whole mountain in a day once again (see my Liberty Ridge Car to Car trip report here).

Park Glacier on Mount Baker

May 30, 2021

With a decent forecast over the long Memorial Day Weekend, Colin and I decided to put the work in to access the remote Northeast side of Mount Baker. It turned out we timed our trip quite well, being able to skin straight from the Heather Meadows parking lot at the Mount Baker Ski Area and encountering some tricky, but doable crevasse crossings near the top of the route.

Expecting about 4-5 hours of approach, we left Seattle in the late morning, departing from the car at 1:30pm. It was hot in the bright sun as we climbed up to Artist Point and even hotter climbing up to the shoulder of Table Mountain without much of a breeze. We made it here in about 1h 20m from the car—not bad for schlepping overnight gear!

The short descent toward Ptarmigan Ridge wasn’t worth transitioning for, so we awkwardly skied down the sticky warm snow and across to a point where we could start climbing again. We decided to stay relatively high and climber’s left along Ptarmigan Ridge. While this likely included a bit of extra up and down, we were able to stay with skins on all the way to the saddle next to Coleman Pinnacle, arriving in about 3 hours from the car.

We did a curling traverse down and skier’s right from the saddle, keeping skins on again. This got us to what’s marked as Camp Kiser on some maps, which has a fabulous view of Shuksan. We decided to press on to The Portals, with one more awkward skins-on descent and one more climb before reaching our destination for the day after 4 hours on the dot (5:30pm). We dug out a campsite, set up shop, and enjoyed a lovely evening watching the mountain pink up.

Knowing the upper Northeast-facing cirque would bake as soon as the sun rose, we got going decently early, skiing away from camp at 5am. There is a cliff band at roughly 6,150 feet which is tough to scope well from above. We eventually found an exit we could ski at the far skier’s right edge of our traverse from camp, then skied down onto the Rainbow Glacier. The snow was quite firm but the angle looked reasonable to skin all the way up, so we put ski crampons on.

Our ascent of the glacier went smoothly, weaving around crevasses as we encountered them and using some photos we’d taken of the route from camp the evening prior. A big sulfur vent near 8,000 feet really completed the volcanic ambiance. At about 9,000 feet, we skinned up between two gaping crevasses running vertically down the mountain. At about 9,500 feet, we had to end run a big crevasse toward the North before swinging back left across the face. It was clear from here that the “moat” described in the ski tour guidebook as being “easy or difficult depending on conditions” was fully out and would easily fit a school bus. We’d expected to come back across the face to find a ramp across a high crevasse and this worked out well.

The snow bridge crossing this final crevasse was a good 8 feet wide, spanning a narrow point about 10 feet across. The rest of the crevasse was much more open and it was a big one. I gingerly skinned across with Colin below me and the rope tight, thinking light thoughts until I was safely on the other side. I dug in and body belayed him across. From there, our final challenge was to make a traversing ascent of the headwall above this gaping crevasse. Thankfully, the snow was perfect for kicking in good steps and we just took our time. At 10,180 feet, I busted through a small cornice and onto the ridge above the Cockscomb. It was relatively easy going from there across ice and wind-affected snow. We reached the top at 10:15am, so just over 5 hours from camp despite that painstaking rising traverse.

We celebrated briefly, explained where we were coming from to some folks coming from the Coleman-Deming, and then scooted back from whence we came to get back across that face and the snow bridge before things warmed much further. Thankfully both went well and we were able to enjoy a stress-free 4,000-foot ski back down the Park and Rainbow Glaciers. The snow was heaviest up high and improved the lower we went, with really fun corn on the bottom third.

A good view of our rising traverse across the upper headwall and the large crevasse running across most of the face

We skinned back up towards camp, booting the short cliff band and then side-hilling through south-facing slop. We arrived at 1pm and had a nice, leisurely lunch with some tea. Fresh socks were downright luxurious. The rest of our descent went smoothly, mostly retracing our approach line except for taking a lower route North of Coleman Pinnacle to avoid gaining unnecessary elevation. At 5:30pm, we arrived at the Heather Meadows parking lot and retrieved our stashed beers from a snowbank. Over 22 miles with a lot of traversing made for some pretty beat-up feet and we were very excited to exit our boots. Obligatory Aslan Brewery waffle fries and burgers capped off an excellent 2-day adventure.