12 ski touring adventures across the Cascade Range
An overnight splitboard mission to the historic Hidden Lakes Lookout — skinning through a whiteout, sleeping in a fire lookout at 6,890 feet, then waking to the most perfect sunrise in the North Cascades.
A bluebird morning on Lichtenberg Mountain — skinning up the south ridge and dropping the SE Couloir with 2,100 feet of steep turns back to the highway.
A moody early-season splitboard tour up the west shoulder of Cashmere Mountain — overcast skies, a rainbow, hurricane-force gusts, and a burn zone skin track through standing ghosts.
A long day into the Lyall Glacier basin in full winter overcast — skinning through cloud, breaking above the inversion to see the whole North Cascades, then dropping back into the fog for 2,000 feet of untracked powder.
A cold, clear Friday after Thanksgiving — 4,300 feet of climbing into the south drainage of Cutthroat Peak, steep alpine terrain, and a POV descent through untracked powder below the headwall.
A quick Thanksgiving Day rip down Spire Gully — skin up in the snow, drop into a steep couloir between rock walls, and be back at the car in under three hours.
Early-season bluebird powder on Madison Ave — clouds burning off to reveal the sharpest peaks in the North Cascades, two laps of untracked November snow, and the kind of day you plan a whole season around.
An overnight attempt on Seven Fingered Jack — two days of overcast sky, a camp at 6,100 feet with steaks on the fire, and the honest call to turn around when the mountain said no.
Two laps on the east chute of Whistler Mountain — a cold November morning, a cloud inversion in the valley, and steep powder between rock walls that was too good to ride just once.
Two early-season scouting missions on Highway 20 — a foggy first look on November 1st, then a full push over Heather Pass a week later as the mountains turned bluebird and the snowpack deepened.
Early November powder on Whistler Mountain — skinning through fresh snow into a basin of rock spires, then dropping the west drainage with nearly 2,000 feet of untracked cold smoke.
Opening day of the season — skinning up the Hogsback on Mt Baker in a full snowstorm, summit in a whiteout, then 4,800 vertical feet of storm powder back to the valley floor.