A Granite Gothic Cathedral

Kelly and I have started a holiday tradition of traveling to the Methow Valley. While the main purpose of the trip is nordic skiing, I try to get in a little bit of backcountry skiing in the surrounding mountains. This year, a combination of a strong low elevation snowpack and access to the Silver Star Sno-Park meant that we could attempt a mid-winter tour of Silver Star, a high peak in the Eastern Cascades.

The Methow Valley is known for great nordic skiing but relatively poor backcountry skiing access without a snowmobile. The Silver Star Sno-Park is the best access point to a deeper snowpack, but Highway 20 is frequently closed for the season 8 miles farther down the valley once a decent amount of snowfall occurs. However, this year the Sno-Park has remained open despite abundant snowfall. This meant that it was a great time to attempt a winter tour of Silver Star.

I have summited Silver Star in the summer, skied down it as part of a traverse in the spring, and climbed in the Wine Spires, but never approached from Silver Star Creek, the winter route.

While we were nordic skiing a few days earlier, a couple recognized me and asked if we had any plans to go backcountry skiing. So we invited Juliette and Kaleb to join us on this tour.

It was a cold and clear morning, with temperatures in the single digits down in Winthrop. The cold made us regret choosing a tour that would keep us completely in the shade all day, but it was not too bad once we got going.

We started from the Sno-Park bathroom, skinning through a forest that burned a few years ago. The snow had a slight temperature crust that disappeared into a nice powder above 4500 ft.

As we got higher, we crested a ridge and got spectacular views of the Silver Star Massif – a grand display of towering granite spires.

We skinned up and down through a long, flat forest, over downed trees and past open creeks. This tour covers a lot of distance, in addition to vertical. At the end of the flat section, we broke out into spectacular views of Vasiliki Ridge and Juno Tower.

At this point, we reached a steeper, forested headwall blocking us from the alpine slopes above. We followed an existing skin track up and right, which required difficult skinning through tight trees. If I did it again, I would stay left (east side of the valley) and ascend steeper open slopes. We ultimately descended this way.

Skinning was challenging through the dense trees and bushes, but eventually we got into the larch groves and broke out into an open boulder field. The spires towered above us like a giant gothic cathedral of granite. It is a beautiful and stunning position.

We saw two skiers traversing towards the Wine Spires, probably in search of good snow. At this point, it was apparent that the alpine was very wind affected. After some discussion, we decided to continue with our original plan of ascending to the Silver Star Glacier, but we would watch out for wind slab danger.

There are a few ways to ascend to the glacier. We chose the left most gully because it looked the least steep. We encountered firm windboard, making for challenging skinning. The breeze here was gentle, but any wind felt icy in the cold shade. Finally, we reached the current base of the Silver Star Glacier, which has receded massively.

At this point, Kelly and I realized that we would probably not have time to reach the saddle before our 2 PM turnaround time. So Juliette and Kaleb blazed ahead while Kelly and I followed their skin track to our high point around 8,000 ft. Clouds were starting to stream across the Pasayten peaks in the distance and build around the spires above us.

Skiing the glacier was challenging in flat light and variable snow. Sections were decent powder, but it was impossible to discern the powder from the wind crust.

Kaleb and Juliette quickly caught up to us on the descent. Once we got out of the alpine, the snow improved dramatically in the larch groves. It was not perfect, but it was decent enough for fun skiing.

We stayed on the right (east) side of the valley, taking a different route down. This eventually led us to a nice powder slope to the flat valley at 5k. This was some of the best snow of the day!

Once at the valley bottom, we had to skin through the flats once again. Then, we made one last transition and skied down through heavier powder and burning quads in the fading light. We emerged out of the forest just as it was getting dark. Kelly was exhausted, but proud of completing such a big tour as her first real ski tour of the season! I guess all the skate skiing and squats are paying off…

Silver Star is a long and beautiful classic tour in the North Cascades. With such short daylight and cold temperatures, it was more challenging than normal, but we all had a good time amongst the beautiful granite spires.

Notes:

• Ascending to the saddle beneath the summit requires over 5500 ft gain round trip. We were moving at an easy pace and it took our group 8.5 hours.
• The true summit looked challenging to scramble in mixed conditions, but a dedicated peak bagger could climb the summit block in winter.
• People commonly use this route in the spring when the highway opens. There is typically a climber’s trail if the lower forest melts out.
• This tour is relatively “moderate”, meaning there is no super steep terrain, but it is long, with some challenging skinning. I imagine that a deeper snowpack or better route selection could make the skinning easier.