Partner: Sam Lozier, Brian Melvin, Tyler Campbell
Mileage: 35 ish
Gain: 18,000' ish
Elapsed Time: Three Days, Three flasks of whiskey
Start time: Early the first day, otherwise not early
Approach/deproach: A little walking on the hidden lake trail, lots of walking on the Pyramid lake trail
Ski Gear: Big skis (105's) and big boots (Zero G pro tours) or similar for everyone!
Technical Gear: Single axe and crampons, glacier kit
Rope: Yes, 30m rad, one for the group
Pack: Standard overnight multi-day pack
Start: Road to Hidden Lake TH as far as we could drive, which was most of the way
Finish: Pyramid lake TH, basically a pullout next to Hwy 20
Dryland: Lots on the exit, we opted not to bring shoes and it was fine (glad it wasn't any longer though)
Banner photo by Brian
Mileage: 35 ish
Gain: 18,000' ish
Elapsed Time: Three Days, Three flasks of whiskey
Start time: Early the first day, otherwise not early
Approach/deproach: A little walking on the hidden lake trail, lots of walking on the Pyramid lake trail
Ski Gear: Big skis (105's) and big boots (Zero G pro tours) or similar for everyone!
Technical Gear: Single axe and crampons, glacier kit
Rope: Yes, 30m rad, one for the group
Pack: Standard overnight multi-day pack
Start: Road to Hidden Lake TH as far as we could drive, which was most of the way
Finish: Pyramid lake TH, basically a pullout next to Hwy 20
Dryland: Lots on the exit, we opted not to bring shoes and it was fine (glad it wasn't any longer though)
Banner photo by Brian
Crossing the Triad Ridge, about to drop onto the Forbidden Glacier - Photo by Brian
The old saying goes: fast and light, spend less time doing what you love. Does that mean the inverse is: slow and heavy spend more time doing what you love (and skiing it better too)?
This trip only further cemented my two pronged theory about how to approach the WA traverses. Option one is fast and light on race gear, just like my previous trip on this route (link below). The second is to bring fun big skis, plenty of food, friends have a damn good time. Just make sure you avoid the annoying middle ground where you're doing a multi day, but also have to be in a rush.
This trip was also a reunion of sorts. Sam and I have been skiing together since UVM. Brian and Tyler are the earliest ski partners we found in WA who we still ski with. We met when Sam, Brian, and I were living in Bellingham and Tyler was on another planet (the Olympic Peninsula). Brian and Tyler knew each other from UW. Now we all live within a 10 mile radius in Seattle.
This trip only further cemented my two pronged theory about how to approach the WA traverses. Option one is fast and light on race gear, just like my previous trip on this route (link below). The second is to bring fun big skis, plenty of food, friends have a damn good time. Just make sure you avoid the annoying middle ground where you're doing a multi day, but also have to be in a rush.
This trip was also a reunion of sorts. Sam and I have been skiing together since UVM. Brian and Tyler are the earliest ski partners we found in WA who we still ski with. We met when Sam, Brian, and I were living in Bellingham and Tyler was on another planet (the Olympic Peninsula). Brian and Tyler knew each other from UW. Now we all live within a 10 mile radius in Seattle.
The Author Dropping Into the Eldorado Glacier Basin with Cascade Pass Behind - Photo by Brian
Not only had we gotten the band back together, no small feat considering the many work and family schedules that needed to be wrangled. We have managed to pick one of the best corn cycle weather windows in years about two months ahead of time. Sometimes you just get lucky.
Our plan was to ski the Isolation Traverse, but try out some variations. The first of which was starting at the Hidden Lake trailhead rather than the Eldorado trailhead. Luckily this variation worked spectacularly, making up for the several others that didn't work at all. While this does add significant vert versus the standard Eldo approach there are several benefits:
-Less dryland and no boulder field on the Eldo trail
-Two nice ski shots on the way to the Eldo basin
-The vert total for the route makes for a really nice three day outing
This was all Brian's idea, he's great with routes. You'll also note that many of the photos here are his. He has a great Sony mirrorless SLR and knows how to use it. It's a rare instance where the author will be featured in actual high quality photos and jot just poorly framed smartphone shots that never even make the cut (sorry mom).
Our plan was to ski the Isolation Traverse, but try out some variations. The first of which was starting at the Hidden Lake trailhead rather than the Eldorado trailhead. Luckily this variation worked spectacularly, making up for the several others that didn't work at all. While this does add significant vert versus the standard Eldo approach there are several benefits:
-Less dryland and no boulder field on the Eldo trail
-Two nice ski shots on the way to the Eldo basin
-The vert total for the route makes for a really nice three day outing
This was all Brian's idea, he's great with routes. You'll also note that many of the photos here are his. He has a great Sony mirrorless SLR and knows how to use it. It's a rare instance where the author will be featured in actual high quality photos and jot just poorly framed smartphone shots that never even make the cut (sorry mom).
Brian and Sam ascending the snowfields below the Eldorado Glacier
Our two other ill fated variation ideas were to ski a Couloir on the north side of the Triad called the Kumquat then traverse the Marble Basin drainage to regain the Isolation route at a col by Marble needle. The second idea was to follow Forest McBrian's old line and ski a huge couloir dropping north just west of the McAllister Glacier, using that line it to shortcut the backbone traverse. TRs for both of those are below, I'm impressed with Sam Chaneles and the TRs he's posting over at Engineered for Adventure lately. Nice work Sam!
Brian, Tyler, and Sam crossing the upper Eldorado Glacier, big country
When I stuck my nose over the entrance to the Kumquat I found breakable crust on anything that wasn't perfectly north facing. It was also steep to begin with and had a pretty good blind roller about 300' down. We had a group of aging athletes with overnight packs, some of who hadn't skied any backcountry yet this year (Sam) and most of whom hadn't been doing a lot of steep skiing. Type 1 fun corn skiing over to the Eldorado glacier it is! "When danger reared its ugly head brave sir Robert bravely tucked his tail and fled." Whatever... the corn was spectacular and it led to one of the best photos anyone has ever taken of me skiing in WA (photo above with Cascade Pass in the background). The passage south of the Triad is super mellow and once you drop in there are some cliffs to your north that remove any temptation to traverse away all the good skiing on your way to the Eldo glacier.
Standard camp below Eldo, time for Whiskey and a Sunset
The climb to the Eldo camp was hot and feeling slow. Getting my ass handed to me at the Perra Menta hadn't exactly perfectly prepared me for hauling an overnight pack with heavy skis. I couldn't complain though as I had been doing a heck of a lot more uphilling than anyone else in the group. At 8.5k' it was a very solid day with overnight packs, we had also dispensed with over half the total trip vert. Not bad for Sam's first BC day of the year.
Spectacular sunset from Eldo camp
A very comfortable evening led into a pleasant morning and we broke camp now on the standard Isolation route. Looking at the exceedingly poor snow coverage down by Moraine Lake on the Forbidden tour we had already given up on skiing McBrian's bonus couloir. Even if the line went the valley below was likely to suck. This was rather relaxing because we would be on the standard route that I knew well and could completely focus on skiing excellent corn snow and generally having a very pleasant time.
Party in the back
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Business in the front
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The rappel at the McAllister col was uneventful. Getting to it was just a short steep snow ramp and the Bergschrund was well covered. The anchor was a little iffy with one anchor on a slung horn on the right with some very bad slings. To the left there was a better one, again a slung horn but with slings of unknown age. I was going to just put an extra cord in the same gap, but it was filled with ice. Luckily we had a very light rock pro rack since we thought we might be getting rowdy in a couloir. I backed up the anchor with a solid nut and felt good about things. The guys dusted off their rappelling skills and we got everyone through it safely. There was one minor rappelling snafu that made me very happy I had insisted everyone do a properly backed up rappel. It probably wouldn't have been a huge issue without a backup, but it wasn't an issue at all with a proper backup.
Brian starting the absolutely epic Backbone Mega Traverse
Too many people traverse away all the good skiing. Just ski down and when you get to the bottom climb back up! Well, if you're going to do a traverse, the least you can do is make it a mega traverse. We covered 3.5 miles losing around 1300' of elevation, all in a span of about 20 minutes, skiing is fun. When Sam Lien and I had been there we dropped just enough to get to the connection over the Coccyx ridge before transitioning, we were in a hurry. This time at the end of the traverse we were able to party ski one of the best corn runs I have ever had, 1k' of perfect ripper fall line corn on big skis with good friends all around, just like a Warren Miller movie. We ended up well below the Coccyx crossing, but who cares?
Corn perfection below the Coccyx
At this point we had also figured out that we were following a solo skier by looking at the track. Whoever you are, good on ya, I hope you did it in a day solo, that would have been an amazing outing! We sure didn't see any tent platforms past Eldo camp.
The push to the Ice-Elation couloir went fast. We encountered the first variable snow of the trip there, but with big skis who cares? It was so nice having some float and some support to be able to ski aggressively even with an overnight pack. Things got hot below Ice-Elation and we had a slow treck out of the basin, The next section over to Isolation peak is pretty rolling and wooded. Isolation itself is alpine, we came in a good deal lower this time than I did last time. It worked well though.
The push to the Ice-Elation couloir went fast. We encountered the first variable snow of the trip there, but with big skis who cares? It was so nice having some float and some support to be able to ski aggressively even with an overnight pack. Things got hot below Ice-Elation and we had a slow treck out of the basin, The next section over to Isolation peak is pretty rolling and wooded. Isolation itself is alpine, we came in a good deal lower this time than I did last time. It worked well though.
We set camp just past Isolation on the ridge to Snowfield Peak. Yet another spectacular campsite. Whiskey supplies were running low but with some rationing we were able to last the night.
Tyler skiing more perfect corn below Isolation Peak - Brian
For all the talk of the "best corn cycle ever" there was some weather coming in the second night and through our third day. We awoke to a couple of inches of snow and found our camp exactly at the cloud level. No matter, we didn't have too far left to go. We broke camp and started in on some engaging whiteout navigation. There is a traverse from the Snowfield ridge to a large ramp West of the peak. Sam Lien and I had knocked this out in maybe 15 minutes on race gear with vis and thawed snow. Turns out things can really slow down in a whiteout when the snow is frozen and everyone is cramponing with overnight packs, we killed at least an hour on this part, probably more.
How about that weather?
The photo below about sums up our climb and descent of Snowfield. It all went fine, I even learned that you could put a rock inside a buff with the ends tied off and it's great for throwing ahead to see where the snow is going. Even as it flew through the air it still give me a reference point to keep vertigo at bay.
The weather and whiteout gave the last day of the outing a nice feeling of complexity. More perfect corn in the sun would have been nice, but engaging in efficient whiteout navigation was also fun.
Sam skiing fast while he can see on Snowfield
The other joy of cloudy days is that sometimes the clouds blow out for a while and you have temporary views that are far more spectacular than on a sunny clear day.
One last photo of the Author (right) wearing his photography friendly shell and Helmet - hint hint folks - Brian
We tried the alternate route around Neve peak after I got lost in the clouds and accidentally skied us right there. As hard as whiteout navigation is, whiteout navigation on a nearly flat glacier is even harder! I actually like that route a little better as there is a steeper shot to ski down onto the Colonial Glacier. That took us to the dreaded traverse under Pyramid Peak, which in these conditions was nothing to dead, no wet slides today.
Sam skiing the ridge below Pyramid Peak
The exit went as well as it could have. Did a little better job staying on the ridge than I had the last time. The solo skier was on it and we just did our best to follow their track. As often happens the most challenging skiing of the whole trip was awkward tree and bushwhack skiing on the exit, no matter I love that stuff. Then we found the trail and started hiking out in ski boots.
Obligatory photo of skiers with no snow to be found
That was a really fun one, I'm so happy we got the band back together and all of the stars aligned for a really memorable trip. I see more trips like this in my future.