Easy Pass skiing - May 11, 2002

This week's video clip (Windows Media, 912KB) warning: audio

Left Seattle too early. Skied up to Easy Pass.

View towards the north side of Black Peak

Bill's traverse idea looked a little sketchy... south slopes were too soft for travel without skis, and a little uncomfortable for travel with skis - steep, and slick snow underfoot - as Bill put it "It's all caution".

Pokin' about

At the Ragged Ridge crest, Bill scoped ahead a bit, but in the end we decided to just ski here instead. Turned out to be a good idea - the snow conditions were excellent: powdery snow on steeper sheltered pitches, and almost-corn on the gentler sections.

Greg finishes a steeper pitch where we found some powdery snow, and also found an avalanche on the aspect with no-so-powdery snow.

Video clip of the slide (405KB)warning: not meant for mom's to see

The slopes lured us lower and lower, enticing us to ski out this way, but the potential presence of cliff bands made us wisely decide to return to the ridge top.

Greg climbing back up

We had to climb back over the cornice, which featured a sporting move. We shared the one ice axe we had among us.

Climbing back over the cornice.

It was around 3pm or so... we expected our south-facing descent to be super sloppy. Not so! It was perfect smooth corn.

Bill carves up the corn, with a backdrop of Mesahchie, Eldorado and part of Mt Logan.

And some more good corn.

And finally the requisite 1000ft of dense forest before returning to the car. We lost Greg for a while in the forest. He had fallen into a tree well head first "like a missile", with water dripping on him. He went in so fast, that when he yelled "shit!" he was already deep in the hole and we couldn't hear him. It took him several minutes to extricate himself. Oops.

Spring is here.

Thank you, Cascades.