Skip to Photos

Ah, another picture perfect Winter weekend in the Cascades! Okay, wait a minute, what the hell's going on here? This is our 3rd overnighter within a month and another great forecast. Not sure how that's possible but may as well take advantage of it.

This was another one Pete's had his eye on for a while. The south face of Alaska Mountain. We started out early Saturday, not sure how long the route in would take. The approach up Gold Creek went pretty easily, with just a couple tricky stream crossings, and we made it into camp with plenty of time to take an afternoon ski run.

Sunday we started somewhat early, though not as early as we planned. It's hard to get moving when you wake up with temps in the teens. But we made quick work cramponing up the southwest rib, and reached the summit at 10 o'clock. Tundra was most impressive, clawing his way up the steep frozen snow even though it was steep and probably pretty scary for him. The snow was still frozen pretty solid when we got tot he top, so we sought shelter from the wind while we waited for the sun to heat things up a little. Finally, a little after 11 o'clock it seemed like the snow was ready. Kirsten, Marcus, Anastasia and I skied our ascent route, while Pete, Becky, Andy, Mica and Tundra traversed over to a more central rib on the south face.

The snow corned up quite nicely -- corn skiing in January, imagine that! Kind of a strange experience, but I won't argue -- it was fun. The only sad part was having to pack up camp as soon as we got down instead of staying another night and relaxing.

Other Links:
      - Andy's video (streaming; requires Internet Explorer)
      - Pete's TAY post