Black Friday at the Pass

After a fantastic start to the winter, November has been a disappointment. Many areas actually lost snowpack throughout the month. The one silver lining of this weather pattern is that Highway 20 has remained open. Logan, Doug, Chris and I had a fantastic day skiing the Lyall Glacier near Rainy Pass at the beginning of the month. On Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving, Wyatt, Logan, Jack, Brigette and I returned for some more glorious fall skiing on Highway 20.

While the snowpack around Washington and Rainy Pass has not declined substantially, it also has not really improved. Thus, we chose to do a tour starting from the highest point, Washington Pass. We considered the classic Blue Lake Peak area, but instead decided to go across the road to Hinkhouse Peak. This peak has several prominent gullies right above the highway that I had wanted to ski for a many years. The south aspects looked thin and rocky, but it seemed like we could make it work.

We had incredible views of the Liberty Bell Spires as we ascended. The morning light kissed the steep east wall of Liberty Bell.

The lower thousand feet of Hinkhouse had some challenging skinning – low coverage, dense trees, and open boulder fields. But we made it through without ever taking skis off. However, we all agreed that it would be good to find an alternative route down if we wanted to preserve our bases.

The upper thousand feet was much easier, tightly switchbacking our way up the far eastern edge of the face. We even passed the NWAC upper Washington Pass telemetry station.

We took a short run on the south face, skiing into a nice gully. While there was some old avy debris, there was also about 4-6 inches of light powder on a firm crust. While not the best skiing, it was very enjoyable and incredibly scenic.

We then worked our way back up the central rip between two gullies towards the true summit. We took a peek at the NE bowl, but the entrance looked chunky with avy debris, so we decided to ski into the west bowl. While the steeper part was scratchy, the lower angle skiing was great, with 8-12 inches of powder on top of the crust. Once again, it was a reminder that when a crust lurks, lower angle terrain is much better!

With the sun gently kissing the western bowl, cliffs glimmering in the sun above, and the last of the larch needles clinging to their branches, it was a beautiful setting. We skinned up to a lower point on the ridge, taking one extra lap through the larches in wonderful snow on the north side.

It was only 1 PM, but I had to head back for a second Thanksgiving dinner, so Wyatt and I left the others and dropped down the south side back towards the highway. We were able to miraculously weave our way through cliffy outcroppings and exposed boulder fields to reach the bottom without taking our skis off!

We completed the day with a lovely skin through the Washington Pass meander meadow, which had a beautiful little fog layer.

While we’re still yearning for a start to true winter in many places, these fall days skiing powder on Highway 20 are truly special. Before this year, I had never experience fall skiing at the pass, but this year I have had two days already! The snow looks to be slow to arrive, but at least I’ll wait patiently, content with some excellent early season days in the North Cascades.

Notes:

• The snow depth was 30 inches at the Washington Pass NWAC station. I wouldn’t try getting up the south side of Hinkhouse with any less – it was barely manageable on the way down.
• This tour often works well when the highway opens in the spring. It’s a quick easy south facing corn run right above the pass.