Tuesday, March 29, 2005
Summit Chief Col
This tour made me realize it has been way too long since I have been back in the Middle Fork Valley. I had the opportunity to show my good buddy AV some of the extended backyard and not only opened his eyes but confirmed my love for the Central Cascades. We initially intended to climb and ski Overcoat Peak but opted to abort this objective for a few reasons (I struggled with finding the approach in fog/low clouds, we were pyschologically a little beat up from the longer than expected time slogging our skis on our backs, and the approach slopes just above the river were quite thin). So, we ditched the climbing hardware and changed our objective to Summit Chief Col. The lighter packs were quite refreshing.
We continued touring to the end of the valley, then followed the drainage southwest into the picturesque valley under Summit Chief.
Once in the valley, there was ample snow and we found stable conditions with 4" of overnight storm snow on top of more dense unconsolidated snow from the storm over a week ago.
The return trip out was very smooth. We learned from the walk/skin/walk/skin...on the way in where the strategic point was to eliminate transitions and forfeit to the skis-on-the-back trek. All in all, we travelled a solid 20 miles and 5000' in a long day. You gotta pay to play and you gotta love that valley.
A special thanks to AV for staying awake on the drive out...his co-pilot was doing his best but most words that came out of my mouth were more related to my dreams than reality.
Labels: ski touring
