Kameron

I'm a member of the NW Glacier Cruisers group

Saw on Facebook, no more snowmobiles for the season

They just ran the skimo race up there. A few weeks ago we could drive within 2 miles of the trailhead before snow. Access is probably perfect for skiing right now, and I believe the snowmobiles are still going up there (so >3 ft at Schreiber's). I would recommend flotation.

Thanks, guys. Riff, I've seen you do some rad tours, you should write some of them up!

4/3/2025 with @lunger (who came up with the idea... some kind of Pyramid Scheme) and Eric Noll After a morning spent walking in steep forest and surmounting knobs of vertical snow on the ridge, we finally snow that was friendly for ski touring. A descending traverse West got us into a prominent slanting tube feature that descends from the shoulder of Pyramid. On this, we noted some shallow but sensitive windslab from recent E winds. Hopefully these wouldn't be found higher up on our intended line. Cascade climber Colonial We skinned upwards, peeked around the corner into the NW cirque, and saw imposing blue ice. To our surprise, a strip of snow pasted on a narrow ramp seemed to provide a weakness through otherwise unskiable terrain. The windslab had also gone away, winds slowed by the large buttress of Pyramid's North face. As we climbed, our excitement grew and we realized we would be able to keep the skis on and travel through this wild feature. The upper bowl even held deep powder (and tiring booting). Gaining the summit was a straightforward affair from the top of the cirque. The ridge is pretty low-angle. We chilled for a while at the ridgetop before moving to the summit. Wehrly likes it spicy Summit! The descent made for a neat line in a beautiful position in great conditions. Nowhere was it crazy steep, but we did feel the exposure especially as we made turns directly above the waterfall and sideslipped the ramp. With snow to 2000' this would make for a 5k descent! We had to make do with a turn-around near 4600', followed by an ascending traverse back to ridgetop and a multi-hour descent through the forest. Starting into the crux: Wehrly opens up the narrowest passage. "SO EXPOSED!" I heard him shout Noll followed: I went last: We sideslipped the ramp: Happy below the gnar! Avy debris, then some nice buttery pow Looking back towards the cirque with our skintrack from the morning blown in This was second attempt for me and Wehrly. We had tried in 2021 but turned around below the cirque when I didn't have a good feeling about the cornices. You are really going up the middle of a big avy path with a lot of overhead hazard. That day we skinned back up to the shoulder of Pyramid and did a long descent down the lower avalanche path. We stayed skier's left and had to negotiate a very steep section through smaller cliffs to reach the flat runout of the avy paths below. That year we skied to around 2000' among large alders and old growth. In retrospect, it might have been a good day for getting the complete descent. March 2021, typical travel on the climber's trail: March 2021, in the lower slide path: If you haven't enjoyed the Pyramid climber's trail in winter conditions, crucial beta is to pass the steep sections by traversing climber's right/West through trees on the ascent. This saves a lot of effort! We didn't have them, but it might be wise to carry a couple ice screws and a v-thread for this line in case you find icier conditions or are approaching it top-down, e.g. as the exit from the Isolation traverse. There are some options for variations. Also, it sounds like Erin Smart, Kurt Hicks, and Forest McBrian skied this cirque but likely traversed far skier's left to avoid the icy crux we skied (this looked passable to us but also thin and exposed) https://turns-all-year.com/trip-reports/march-23-25-isolation-traverse-plus. Skurlock photo with the line:

About that Washington state budget.... 💩

My one time climbing the North ridge of Baker, a well-known local guide who lives in France and their two partners were skiing the route and flying a drone above us. They managed to both annoy us with the buzzing of their drone and also send a ton of small ice chunks raining down on us while we climbed through the ice cliff. It is annoying.

Sick!

Well done, youth! Keep sacrificing those pickets and you'll keep climbing for a good long time

Looks scenic, nice shots of 3 Fingers!

Nice work guys! Let's get out skiing. I have been turning around below the summit on my few bids up there this year. Good on you for pushing through.

The ice dagger definitely connects. I saw some tracks from Deming saddle to Colfax, so somebody may have climbed a route there recently and came down; I'm not sure.

I had my zoom camera on a ski up the Coleman yesterday, so I got some pictures of the cruxes for you hardcores. We made the saddle and rode down from there. The glacier skied ok despite being pretty variable, but the best snow was in Grouse. There are some annoying new blowdowns in the forest, but it still went ok on the down. I would prefer the trail up until there's significant snowfall down to the trailhead elevation. You can drive nearly to the trailhead.

Fischer Transalp Tour 30, $260 Excellent, high-performance ski touring boots. They have been used for last season as part of a boot quiver, so actual wear-and-tear is minimal. I love the way these ski downhill and the huge range of motion with little friction uphill. Unfortunately, the uphill was irritating my medial malleolus. There is a punch in this area that tried to fix the problem, but I have decided to give up on trying to make these work for my bony feet. Really good boots in excellent condition. Size is 30. However these fit more like a 29 in terms of length. I wear a US size 13 or 14 shoe. Nice roomy toebox but locked-in feeling throughout the midfoot and heel.

Latest update is that the project is cancelled. Apparently the proposers will have to reapply for permission to get their huts in. Not sure if this applies to the snowmobile club warming shelter as well or just the overnight huts.

Definitely is still in-season. I don't know about access, but I saw an instagram post from the Mt Hood climbing rangers looking down it in what looked like good snow cover.

Sweet, except for that gnarly wet slide. Cooper spur and the Eliot headwall are looking prime for skiing.

Timely report but yeah next time leave the drone at home. I find them quite annoying

Get your comments in by May 2, folks!

Regarding Roundhouse/Anderson-Watson: This is my favorite of the proposed locations from a ski perspective. However, one of the proponents has moved to Bozeman and the other hasn't been responding to requests to talk about it. It is unclear whether that group is seriously interested in making that hut happen or not.

I sure hope they put in bear boxes at the campgrounds. That makes things just so much easier than carrying bear cans/hanging/etc.

I was at the meeting, too. My takeaways were that things are just too vague--various clarifications were made at the meeting but we need to see things in writing to be sure that's the real plan. @tbickford I felt like I heard something different in what Abram said. I thought he said they'd like "2 huts at the Heliotrope trailhead", not Grouse ridge etc. I personally don't think there will be enough demand at Heliotrope midwinter to make even 1 hut work, since there is very limited protected terrain (at least that I'm aware of). Maybe the glamping crowd will be into it regardless. I am involved with CBA, and we put together this blog post asking people to comment: https://www.cascadebackcountryalliance.com/post/4-huts-proposed-for-mt-baker-region (There is a minor mistake in the post; the snowmobile club hut is not an overnight one)

t I was driving back from the end of the MF Nooksack FS road once and some guys were hanging around their car. One of them waved as we drove by and they chatted us up. The dude had been riding around on his dirt bike with a pistol in his waistband and it had fallen out. Kind of sheepishly, they asked if we'd seen it on the road. We said "nah" and got out of there.

Hi Max, I'm not sure what makes that approach more "legit" than going in from the MF Nooksack. As far as I can tell, either route passes through Hampton land which is gated and officially requires permission from the landholder. The route in from the MF Nooksack is also bikeable. If I'm off on those details, though, I'd be keen to hear it