March 26, Mt. Roosevelt Circumnavigation

Last minute tour with Crispin and his friend Dave.   I was feeling a little low on energy, and wasn't sure about a big day, but figured I could always bail.   We skinned up to the NE ridge of Chair Peak and dropped off the backside to Snow Lake.  Excellent turns up high, but a bit of rubble on the lower slopes.  Climbed up from the lake to the notch below Mt. Roosevelt and dropped the "holy diver".   I have no idea where the name came from, but it's a nice North facing gully that holds pretty good snow.   Down near the bottom, near Lower wildcat lake, we headed around the corner and back up towards Gem Lake.  Rest of the tour was pretty mushy, down to lake, across lake, up snow lake divide and down to source lake and car.  6 hours.  Whew, big day.

Crispin drops in on the North Face of Chair Peak

smooth

Dave tele-style

Dave

Dave and Crispin

Dave drops off the shoulder of Mt. Roosevelt

Dave

More Dave

Good turns on a sunny day

Good turns on a sunny day

Payback, climbing out from Lower Wildcat Lake

Almost there

Final ridge before skiing back to Snow Lake

Dave and Crispin 

March 17, Slot Couloir, Snoqualmie Mt.

Possibly one of the best days of the season.   Beautiful weather, good friends, and epic terrain.   Too many gorgeous pictures.

Greg and Scott with Chair Peak in background

Scott and Greg perched
on the edge of the slot couloir

Go Greg

Scott at the top


Scott drops in

Scott

Kevin

Kevin

Whoa, getting steeper


Dogleg Left

Greg

nice


Greg

It,s a big, long, couloir


Happiness


Scott

Kevin

Scott

Greg

Scott 

Kevin

Kevin


Pretty cool

Still good on the apron

Scotty

smile

Good spot for lunch,
 Kevin's ski tracks on the right

Eating Dianne's chocolate chip cookies

Climbing out of thunder creek basin

Just a few switchbacks

Almost there

Back on the frontside, calling home.


March 14, Big Trees, Alpental Valley

Greg Louie plows up a little powder

It was a nice quiet Monday morning in Alpental Valley.   We were the only car in Lot 4, except for a couple of guys doing a product shoot for their latest drone.   Snow was falling heavily as we headed up valley in search of some deep snow.   We turned left at "big Trees" and toured upward.   We stopped, in blowing wind, on a knoll above "draft dodger ridge".   We got a little chilled, as we transitioned into ski mode.   Crispin, recovering from a nasty virus, declared it would be a one lap day for him, as his body did not seem to be coping with the cool weather.    We retraced our skin track, skiing back towards Pineapple drainage, and then enjoyed the steepening turns as we dropped into the effervescent freshly fallen snow.   Bliss was had by all.   At the bottom, above Source Lake, we dropped Crispin, and Scott who, also, agreed to to stop at one lap.   Our smaller group,  Greg Louie, Dan Larson, and I headed back up  for another lap.  As we neared our high point, the skin track was lost in the blowing wind, and we stopped to get our goggles out for eye protection from the flying snow.   We quickly de-skinned and dropped into Draft Dodger, down to Sucker Chute for the best turns of the day.

Crispin rolls into Big Trees

Scott

Greg


Crispin

Kevin

Crispin

Kevin

No ski shot of Dan, but we did get this shot of a monster drone
in the parking lot.