Chair Peak Circumnav

An hour east of Seattle, Chair Peak towers over the Alpental Valley of Snoqualmie Pass. The mountain guards the Alpine Lakes Wilderness and offers steep, complex terrain for skiers and mountaineers.

Last weekend, Helen and I set off to attempt the Chair Peak Circumnavigation, a classic, logistically engaging route that circles the entire formation.

Photos are sparse because it was just such a damn good day. After a week of rain in the mountains, a stout crust had capped our entire (thin) snowpack. Not knowing what travel conditions to expect, we brought all of our "pointy paws" - boot crampons, ski crampons, and ice axes to add security. Excessive, in retrospect.

Luckily, we found 8-12in of soft, cold snow floating on top of the crust. We lined up with the hordes of people (and unruly dogs) climbing the south shoulder as the sun started to cook the new snow. At the top of the shoulder, we booted up the thumbtack and onto the north slope, a usually incredible run that was trashed by debris from the largest avalanche I've seen. We enjoyed a few precious pow turns before picking our way through minivan-sized ice chunks on the way down to Snow Lake.

Refueling with mochi cake, we skinned back up to Chair Peak Lake, scoping the Biznatch and Little Alien couloirs. We decided to save the former for another day and the latter for never. Skinning in the shade was cool and wonderful, a lovely contrast to baking in the sun.

Skiing slush down from Melawka Pass, we started our last climb of the day up to the top of the Bryant Couloir. We had scoped the couloir earlier in the day and it looked thin, but some encouragement from another couple had us thinking it was passable.

Reader, it was not really passable. A rock step lurked in the choke point, about 2/3rds as wide as my skis are long. Fully gripped, I side-stepped the damn with the grace of a baby giraffe - a far cry from the cruiser conditions I found in the Bryant last year.

Panic subsided once we were through the choke - we skied the icy luge track back to the parking lot. I wish I had more to say, but sometimes you just have a wonderful time and it doesn't mean all that much.