Returning to the GOAT

The Isolation Traverse was the first big ski traverse I ever did, when the Wasatch Boys and I blitzed it in a single push. I remember great conditions and stunning views, but the speed definitely limited by ability to fully take in the scenery (and a failing camera meant I came away with few good photos). Even though it was the first ski traverse I did, I still think it is the best I’ve done. Although it was not a priority, I always wanted to return to the Isolation over a few days.

As Memorial Day Weekend approached, Wyatt expressed that he wanted to do an overnight in the North Cascades, so I suggested the Isolation Traverse. John, Wyatt, and I made plans for a 2.5 day trip, with the final day being just the hike down.

Day 1: Eldorado Trailhead to Backbone Ridge

It had been three years since my last multi-day ski traverse, so I have become quite soft in the meantime. When I finally put on my overnight pack, loaded with skis and boots, I realized it was not so bad. However, Wyatt’s pack was a monster. I could barely lift it off the ground.

We found a log crossing at the creek and then started ascending quickly up the Eldorado climber’s trail. This trail is GOATed in the realms of North Cascades climber trails – it’s in great condition and gets you into the alpine incredibly quickly.

We transitioned to skinning around 5k. The snow was already soft, but it hardened once we crossed from Eldorado Creek to Roush Creek.

It was a busy day on Eldorado, and we ran into a bunch of other groups as we climbed up to the glacier.

We were originally planning on just cutting across the Inspiration Glacier, skipping Eldorado. But we were ahead of schedule and feeling good, so we decided to tack on an Eldorado summit. I have summited a few times before, but it has been many years.

Eldorado was my first proper North Cascade summit. When I first visited 9 years earlier, it absolutely blew my mind. I never knew we had mountains and glaciers like this. I still think the summit views of the North Cascades from Eldo are GOATed (or at least on par with Goode, Forbidden, Dome, and Luna). This peak will always be special to me.

It had snowed about a foot a few days earlier at the upper elevations. The north side of the summit ridge still held dry snow, which stuck to our bases as we tried to ski down. The northeast face was no longer dry powder, but it was quite mushy, with visible patches of yellow pollen. Any hopes we had of good skiing on this traverse were quickly dashed.

We traversed over to the McAlister Glacier col, descending through super sticky snow.

We skinned easily through the soft snow towards the next col north of Dorado Needle. The standard point to cross this ridge is the obvious low point on the ridge. The bergschrund was already partially open, so John carefully belayed me as I crossed it. Wyatt, with the heaviest pack, sunk up to his waist, but never broke through. A week later, it might have been problematic.

The other side of the col has a short 10m rappel.

Our next task was to find a campsite along Backbone Ridge. From the summit of Eldo, we had spotted a dry, flat looking spot high on Backbone Ridge before Perdition Peak. As we got closer, it looked promising.

Suddenly, I heard a commotion behind me. I turned back and saw Wyatt getting carried down the slope in a wet slab avalanche! He came to a stop about two hundred feet lower, unharmed, with almost all of his gear. I quickly found one of his poles in the debris.

While we were not surprised to see any avalanche activity, we were quite surprised by this avalanche because:

• It broke while Wyatt, the third skier, crossed a slope. We even were both on the slope together previously, but did not trigger it.
• It broke a hundred feet above him, in a cohesive slab. Usually wet avalanches break beneath the skier.
• It had been at least three days since the most recent snowfall, so we would have expected the snow to be better bonded by this point.

The terrain where Wyatt was carried was mellow and inconsequential, but it definitely put us on edge. We’re all very used to wet loose avalanches, but this sort of widely propagating, unpredictable wet slab was concerning.

We had one last moderately steep slope to ascend to our ridge line camp. John crossed it first, followed by me. After I had crossed the steepest part, I heard a crack, the snowpack dropped beneath me, and the slopes behind me and in front of me both slid – a remote trigger. Spooky!

We were very happy to get off the sloppy snow, onto dry ground at our camp. We were able to pitch our tent right on the ridge, with dry rocks to sit on. There was enough of a trickle to fill our water bottles nearby. Aside from the wind, it was an incredible camp.

Peering over the edge, we could gaze four thousand feet down into the wild McAlister Cirque. The rest of the traverse traveled above this wild valley.

With high clouds to the west, the sunset was a bit muted, but the views were still delightful. The first night in the alpine each year is always special.

Day 2: Backbone Ridge to Pyramid Camp

Given the instabilities from the previous day, we discussed our options. Unfortunately, we could not reverse the rappel. We could bail back to Eldo by climbing the Royal Couloir or crossing the Eldo/Triad Col, which would likely require a rappel. If we continued, we would have to be careful on any slope with unconsolidated snow, traveling one by one. But we also suspected that the wet slab issues would be less likely at the lower elevations we would travel through. If we could make it to the Neve Glacier, then we knew we would be probably be okay.

With a weak refreeze, we decided to continue with the traverse. We got started at 6 AM on the long descending Backbone Ridge traverse.

The crust was mostly supportable, but broke if we turned. Luckily, we didn’t have to make many turns. By the time we reached the end of the traverse at 6k ft, the snow was complete mush.

As we changed to a NW aspect on the next climb, the snow firmed up again. We reached the top of Ice-Elation Couloir around 7:30 AM and the snow actually felt quite hopeful. John took a few turns and confirmed the snow was actually pretty good!

Lower down, the snow had not refrozen, but in the shade, it skied nicely as “no refreeze corn”. The entire run was good skiing. Our spirits soared, finally skiing good snow, and on the best line of the trip. We quickly booted up the next climb in the shade with renewed energy.

This experience was another data point supporting the “Intermediate Corn Theorem”. We knew that this was probably the last of the “corn zone” we would experience.

Down at the saddle before Isolation Peak, we all started experiencing complete skin failure. Sure, our skins were wet, but their inability to stick at all to our ski bases was unusual. For the first time in my backcountry career, I had to rely complete on ski straps to keep my skins on.

The ski straps dragged in the snow, and our skins accumulated heavy slushy snow. Our progress and morale dropped drastically. We crawled our way up Isolation Peak, gladly switching to booting up the steeper snow on the south face. The snow was softening in the sun, so we moved as quickly as we could to get through this potentially hazardous section. Another domino down!

Wyatt wanted to summit Isolation Peak. It’s not like there was any good skiing to do, so we gladly ditched our overnight packs, switched into trail runners, and scrambled up to the summit. This peak is dead center in its namesake traverse.

Our next descent featured some moderately steep east and north facing slopes. I ski cut the first slope, triggering a nice loose wet avalanche, the kind that is familiar and simple to manage. The bed surface actually skied pretty well!

We began a long, slow slog through slushy snow towards Snowfield Peak. The east aspect was deep, mucky, soul-sucking trail breaking.

On the traverse beneath Snowfield, we had to cross one last concerning southwest facing slope. The runout was fine, but it was definitely a steep enough to slide. The snowpack collapsed a few times on my way over, but fortunately, nothing happened as we crossed the slope one by one. We took a long break on the rocks on the other side, finally able to relax a little.

Convective clouds raced overhead and a cool breeze made the final climb up to Snowfield actually quite pleasant. We were in no rush now, so we relaxed at the top of the Neve Glacier to admire the peaks around us.

When I skied this last time, I remember cruising nice corn down the gentle glacier. This time, we experienced the stickiest snow of my life; we had to double pole down the 10 degree slope!

We stopped to inspect our skis, discovering our bases were covered in pollen. This is likely what was causing the earlier skin failures. I cleaned off my bases with a credit card. It improved my glide briefly, before my bases just accumulated pollen once again. It was hopeless!

As we crossed the glacier, I noticed small black lines in the snow. Upon closer inspection, I realized that it was tiny glacier worms! These unique creatures spend their entire lives on glaciers. Wyatt informed us that their bodies have a super cooled fluid that can resist freezing at 32 F. The glacier was covered in millions of these little guys.

The upper half of the Colonial Glacier actually provided nice skiing, before getting extremely sticky down low. Make that 1.5 good ski runs on the traverse!

We had one last steep slope to cross beneath Pyramid Peak. However, this east facing slope had already gone back into the shade, decreasing the hazard.

From the bump on the ridge, we could gaze directly down to the Diablo Lake Dam nearly 5000 ft below us. We also spotted a great looking camp lower down on the ridge.

As soon as we set up our tent, the wind picked up and storm clouds started to engulf the peaks around us. To the east, thunderclouds towered. We knew there was a chance for light showers overnight, but we had covered all the alpine terrain.

Usually, I only go in the mountains when the forecast is splitter. But it was fun this time to watch the clouds race around us, playing hide-and-seek with the peaks.

Day 3: Pyramid Camp to Pyramid Lake Trailhead

We woke up to light rain on the tent, but the weather managed to hold off for our descent. Our skis were so thickly covered in pollen that we just hiked down, following some bootprints in the snow before leaving the snow for good around 4500 ft.

The Pyramid Lake climber’s trail is no Eldo masterpiece, but it still was relatively quick to get down. We reached the car after just 3 hours, with plenty of time to finish the car shuttle and get home to start the rest and recovery.

While the snow conditions were subpar, I still really enjoyed returning to the Isolation Traverse. With easy access on both ends, incredible scenery, and good descents, the Isolation is truly the GOAT of Washington ski traverses. A single day push was exhilarating, but a slower approach was really nice so we could soak in the views. It was a very different experience, and I am grateful for both.

Thanks to Wyatt and John for a good time!

Notes:

• With our summits of Eldorado and Isolation, our route was 26 miles and 14k ft gain.
• You could camp most anywhere on this route, but a camp near Backbone ridge works well for both 2 day and 3 day iteneraries.
• We were able to find running water in many places, especially at the lower elevations.
• This is a relatively low snow year, but coverage was still fine. The main issue was the bergschrund on the McAlister Glacier, which was nearly open.
• A single 30m rope was sufficient for the rappel.