January 16, Red Mountain

Great day in the mountains.  Hooked up with Crispin at the late hour of almost noon.  5 hours later we were back at the car with smiles. 

Crispin and dog Geeb enjoy the summit of Red

First turn off the top

Jan 27, Mt. Snoqualmie. and Red Mt.

 Hooked up with Seth and Eric Noll for a tour out the backdoor of the Adler condo at Alpental.  Went up the Phantom to the summit of Mt. Snoqualmie, then dropped briefly into the crooked couloir basin (totally windblown after first pitch).  Climbed out to the West summit of Snoq. and dropped down the Commonwealth Valley to the base of Red Mt.   Red had about 8-10 inches of powder over a firm base.  Skied very well.  Then we cruised down the commonwealth and out to the Alpental road.  Got lucky and caught a shuttle bus almost immediately that took us back up the road.   Visibility was pretty poor on Snoqualmie, but the turns on Red were sweeet.  Sorry no Red pics.

Dropping off Snoqualmie Mt. into
the Crooked Couloir drainage.

Seth naviagates through the sluff and fog

Switching over to boot up the rest of Red Mt.

Dec 13, Red Mt. and bonus run

Wow, what a great day to be out!

Crispin and his new dog, Geeb

Topping out on Red Mt.

Greg rips some turns off the summit

Crispin

Greg

Kevin

All tracked up!   Nice.

Bonus lap, extra 1,000 feet of vertical

Crispin with Mt. Thompson in the distance

March 8, West shoulder of Red Mt.

Greg with Mt. Rainier in the distance

Kevin with the north facing chute right behind

Nice turns - West shoulder of Red Mt.

Greg kicks off some pinwheels

Greg and I headed out to try and circumnavigate Red Mt.  I think I have been up to the chute, off the north side of the west shoulder of Red Mt. three times now, and have yet to pull the trigger and drop off into the unknown.  Today was a beautiful bluebird day with rapidly warming temperatures.  With the fresh snow lingering from Tuesday and the hot weather we were both pretty tired by the time we reached the West shoulder of Red.  Gazing at the chute off the backside, we could see the chute looked skiable, but certainly did not look pretty.   It seems to take the brunt of any North winds, not to mention the ice glazed rocks above the sides of the chute.   It didn't take much imagination to envision a hard layer of ice under a thin layer of wind buffed snow.  I think we were both happy to not push it, and just ski the West shoulder of Red.   Turns were okay off the top, but turned extremely sticky by the time we hit the floor of Commonwealth Valley.   We did ski cut a few slopes and enjoyed firm turns on a nice smooth base.  It's always interesting to set off a few wet snow slides and see how much momentum they pick up.  We were definitely concerned with avalanche condtions today, and expected that we would need to slide off some of the new snow on our way down, before being able to safely ski.

        Unfortunately, this evening I heard that another fellow backcountry skier had met his maker.  Steve Romeo, from Jackson Hole, was killed with his partner in an avalanche on Ranger Peak in the Tetons.  Steve was well known due to his website  tetonat.com .  Although I did not know him personally, his website was a daily check for me, and I had emailed Steve on occasion for equipment advice.   He definitely will be missed.

Feb 15. Red

Hooked up with Collin from work.  Did a quick run up Red Mt..   Windblown up top, but nice powder below the treeline.   As usual, got a good workout booting the top half of the mountain.  The memorial to Monika was starting to get buried, but a beaded necklace was still visible.

Collin Darrah

Feb 2, Red Mt. and N. Shoulder. Good day / Bad day

 Well looks like it is officially a body recovery, on the backside of Red Mt.  Unfortunately while touring with Greg, we discovered a backpack and skis on the summit of Red.  It quickly became apparent that the gear belonged to Monika, a friend that Greg had skied with a couple weeks ago.   It appeared, due to a cornice failure, that she had plummeted off the steep backside of Red the day prior.We got out our cellphones and started to verify that she was missing.  Francine at work, at the ski school, was able to contact her work and verfiy that, yes, she was missing.  She then began the long process of calling 911 and alerting our local network of S&R, ski patrol, and fire guys.  Greg  and I started to work our way out onto the South ridge of Red, trying to get a view into the backside.  Not getting a good view, we tried to work our way to the notch in the South ridge to gain access to the backside.  Unfortunately we were cliffed out above the notch, and forced to descend off the ridge.  Lacking any more energy and legs starting to fail we headed  home.    The rescue helicopter flew overhead as we started to make our way through Commonwealth Valley.  A tragic end to very well respected person.

Greg, with cell phone in hand, thinks about the situation.


The day had started out so perfectly.  It was a beautiful day.

John breaks trail to South shoulder of Red Mt.

 


Greg




Greg carves up the South shoulder of Red





Greg on top of Red Mt.





John takes turns off the summit.
  Had to hurry home to feed the cows.



April 22, Fringes of Red and the Kendall Katwalk

Crispin prepares to slide into the unknown.

I had a plan.  Do something new.  How about a circumnavigation of Red?  With new snow firmly bonded to old we made excellent time to Red Pass (2hr).  Unfortunately our luck ran out at the pass.  A persistent gray layer was obscuring our 1,700 foot descent into the unknown.  Our chute was firm and hard and we could only hope it went through.  In a moment of caution we decided to retreat.  We made turns back down to the SW edge of Red then climbed up the drainage between Red and Kendall.   At the ridge we headed North in search of the famed Kendall Katwalk.  We found it cloaked in a layer of snow, except for a small patch where we had lunch.  The turns back down were the best of the day, and all agreed it was a good way to spend the day.

Crispin

Brandon

Kendall Katwalk

Dec 13, Red Mt. elev. 5,890 - Take 2

Well, I didn't quite make it to the summit of Red on my last trip, but did enjoy some good turns and laid a good skin track in to access Red.  So with a little help from Greg Louie and Seth (the machine) we cruised up Red Mt..  Unfortunately the views were not as good and the snow was a little crusty, but we managed to have a good time.   Round trip time 3:48 .   Total elev. gain 3,200 feet.

Booting

Seth busting out a nice boot track

Greg and Seth enjoying the summit views

Seth

Steep

Seth

Greg

Dec. 9, NW shoulder of Red Mountain

I have a ski ordered for Francine called the Payback.  I never thought much of the name.  It brought up thoughts of paying back money.  Well this tour made me think a little more about the name, Payback.  Our climb topped out at 5,300', only 2,300' of elevation gain.   The first hour and half we climbed through the trees.  The ground was crusty from chunks of snow fallen from the trees.  Logs appeared as lumps in the shallow snowpack.  We reached the base of Red and started upward.  Despite the frigid temperatures, we were sweating in the sun.  We slip and slid, we tried ski crampons, then resorted to boot packing to make it up to the bench that lies directly below Red.   The slope above looked gorgeous, but we were negotiating for something that would require less effort.  We could see a pass to the left between Lundin and Red that looked close.  I had wanted to check for a potential route around Red and see the view from the pass.  Of course the ridge turned out to much further than it initially looked, but the snow was good and we switchbacked up, until we hit the ridge and views of Mt. Thompson.  Payback.  The turns were creamy as dropped back down our ascent route.  Payback.  Once we hit treeline it was survival skiing.  Payback.  But those turns, the adventure, well worth it.

Don boots up to the bench below Red

Final traverse to our highpoint.  Rainer in the distance

Mt. Thompson in the distance

Sweet

Feb 22, Red Mountain, Elev. 5,890

Sunshine! Sunshine! Seems like spring. Greg and I cruised up to the top of Red in just under 3 hours, then had a quick ski home. Snow on top was firm, just right in the middle, and too soft at the bottom. The views were outstanding.