AlpineK Posted March 20, 2011 Share Posted March 20, 2011 Trip: Snow Lake Chair & Roosevelt - N Facing Chair and SE Facing Roosevelt Date: 3/19/2011 Trip Report: Dave Parker and I skied around Chair Peak on St. Patrick's day. The conditions were nice. When Cman suggested Jeff H and I go back there and ski I was psyched. We wanted to ski the north facing aspect of Chair Peak then head up to Roosevelt and ski a north facing couloir. We were unsure of snow conditions, but we figured we would get nice skiing even if we didn't complete our objective. We found a broken skin track to Source Lake, but beyond that nobody had groomed our route On the ski up to the east bowl on Chair some small point release avalanches came off the lower NE ridge of Chair. Eventually we reached the base of the Chair NE Ridge route. The ski down to Snow Lake was fantastic. Due to their aspect north facing slopes retained nice powder up high. Snow thickened as we lost altitude, and the new snow hid weird bumpy layers from avalanches in the recent past. Cman skiing Snoqualmie and beyond At Snow Lake we started climbing towards Chair Peak Lake and Roosevelt. The snow was thick and we started frequently switching leads on trail braking. Close to a shoulder above Chair Peak Lake we saw a large point release avalanche come off slopes on Roosevelt. Since continuing our route required prolonged exposure to steep SE facing slopes on Roosevelt we decided to can our original plan. We had a nice ski in thick powder back to Snow Lake. On the ski across Snow Lake we saw nice blue ice in places From the Snow Lake divide skiing to Source Lake was fun until we had to cross a large avalanche zone near the lake. From there the Alpental we found a fast track back to the parking lot thanks to skiers at Alpental. Since it's the Vernal Equinox, and given the conditions, I'd say it's time to start talking about corn. Gear Notes: Umm snow sliding devices and avy gear. Approach Notes: South facing slopes could require good route selection and caution for the next bit if temperatures stay warm. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cman Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 It was a fun tour, the run down the NF of chair was some great snow. too bad that sun messed up all the beautiful powder. Should be lots of base for spring conditions fun. morning sun and powder Feck skiing down roosevelt view of Snow Lake from roosevelt Jeff on roosevelt Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Friedrich Posted March 21, 2011 Share Posted March 21, 2011 Feck you are unstoppable! Nice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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