[TR] Melawkwa Pass- Snow Lake to Gem Lake to the pass 6/15/2004

[jonthomp]

Climb: Melawkwa Pass-Snow Lake to Gem Lake to the pass

 

Date of Climb: 6/15/2004

 

Trip Report:

What a great day to be alive and in the mountains! Donnelly and I left the Snow Lake TH at 6:05am, hiking under clear skies with wisps of fog moving up the valley. A leisurely pace put atop the ridge above Snow Lake an hour later. We pulled on our boots, hopped on our skis, and chattered and thrutched our way down frozen, suncupped snow. We took our skis off to continue the hike to Gem Lake. Once there I climbed to the top of the knoll at the Gem's south end while Donnelly yo-yoed a small bump and caught a little air. I was more than happy to snag first turns down a chute which ran from near the top of the knoll to the very edge of the lake. Donnelly caught up to me and we each hit the chute two more times then skied a little bit onto the lake itself to traverse below some rocks and connect to a gentle, cruiser of a slope leading to about 45 minutes of booting to reach Melawkwa Pass. After a quick snack, I tore off into the basin below the pass, retracing our steps but at a much more thrilling speed—fast, hero corn! Donnelly aired it off the cornice at the top of the pass a couple times and we continued to rip up the slopes we had ascended. Back into running shoes at the ridge above Snow Lake and a 26 minute run back down put us at the car at 3:30 after about a 16 mile day of fun skiing, hiking, a bit of trail running and not a soul around until the very end. A great day in the sunshine!