{"id":1644,"date":"2019-03-09T18:01:39","date_gmt":"2019-03-09T18:01:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/climberkyle.com\/?p=1644"},"modified":"2020-10-22T03:36:04","modified_gmt":"2020-10-22T03:36:04","slug":"north-shoulder-chair-peak-tour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/climberkyle.com\/2019\/03\/09\/north-shoulder-chair-peak-tour\/","title":{"rendered":"North Shoulder Chair Peak Tour"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Best of Winter and Spring<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

March has been cold so far, dumping more light powder in our mountains. For a little Climate Corporation reunion, Jeff, Jack, Patti and I made a short Saturday morning tour in the Alpental Valley to get the snow before it warmed up in the strong March sun. It was a fantastic little tour to ski the north side of Chair Peak in perfect conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was a cold 18 degrees at the trailhead, but warmed up quickly once we entered the sun at Source Lake. We were in a spring furnace as we climbed above Source Lake to the Chair Peak Basin. The snowpack all around us was impressive considering where it was only one month ago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Bryant Peak and couloir on the right.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Source
Source Lake Line, a wickedly hard ice climb.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The skin was pretty easy all the way into the upper basin, where we had a magnificent view of Chair Peak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chair
Sunny morning in Chair Peak Basin.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

There are a few ways to the north side. We chose the first notch in the ridge because it had a (sort of) skin track up it and seemed like the safest option.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chair
Lots of kick turns up to this notch!<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Once on the ridge, we skinned for a ways up and down to the base of the NE Buttress. The view of Chair was grand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Chair
Skinning towards the base of Chair Peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Chair
Closeup of Chair Peak.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

The view down towards Snow Lake was a magical land of pillowly snow features and not a single tree. Beyond, Glacier Peak, the Monte Cristo Peaks, and the Alpine Lakes Crest dominated. Truly alpine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Snow
Snow Lake and the North Central Cascades.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Pillowly
Gentle, pillowed snow all the way down… until the lower cliffs you cannot see.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Alpental
Wonderful morning in the Alpental Valley.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Chair
Windlip on the ridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, we reached the base of the NE Buttress. The ice on the route looked really good and the North Face also looked in prime condition. Maybe I’ll have to come back to climb it next weekend if conditions are still good! We watched a soloist starting up the route.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"NE
Soloist on the classic NE Buttress.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We transitioned here and traversed out for the start of our run onto the north slopes of Chair. The snow was nearly bottomless, pretty light, and super playful! The terrain was awesome, moderately steep and perched high above Snow Lake in a beautiful position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Jeff
Jeff gets first tracks down towards Snow Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Jeff
Jeff making nice uniform turns all the way down.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Patti
Patti goes next.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Jack
Jack takes the last turn.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"North
Jack smiling with the great snow.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

We continued down and left through a wide couloir feature that gradually steepened before finally dropping down to Snow Lake.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"North
More pretty turns down the couloir.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Jeff
Jeff carving through the deep powder.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Jeff
Jeff looking like he should be in some ski magazine.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Down at the lake, we took a nice break in the sun putting our skins back on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Climate
The crew of Climate and ex-Climate shredders.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Snow
Awesome blue ice flow on the shore of Snow Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Next, we began the long skin across Snow Lake. This time it was sunny and calm, much better than my previous skin across the lake in a cold head wind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Snow
Snoqualmie Mountain at the end of Snow Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Snow
Bubbly clouds beyond the outlet of Snow Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Snow
Sun shines through the trees.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

When we got back to the top of the Snow Lake Divide, Patti and Jack took a break in the sun while Jeff and I went up the ridge to the left for one more little run.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Mt.
Steep clouoirs on Mt. Garfield.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"Chair
Chair Peak, Mt. Roosevelt and Snow Lake.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Jeff and I skied a short run of fantastic north facing trees with some good little steep sections. The powder here was definitely bottomless and dry. Then it was a short skin back to the divide once again to meet Patti and Jack. The final descent to Source Lake was a little challenging, since the sun over the last two days had destroyed the south-facing snow, but still pretty fun. We got back to the parking lot a little after noon, ready to get some burritos on North Bend!<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wonderful powder on a chill tour to ski the north shoulder of Chair Peak near Alpental.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[2],"tags":[16,29,39],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"yoast_head":"\nNorth Shoulder Chair Peak Tour - Climber Kyle<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/climberkyle.com\/2019\/03\/09\/north-shoulder-chair-peak-tour\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"North Shoulder Chair Peak Tour - 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