Backcountry touring is fabulous in the Pacific Northwest now. I’ve been having too much fun skiing, and haven’t put up many trip reports. Here’s one to change that.
Last weekend Jeff, Jameson, and Tim invited me to ski on Mt. Pilchuck. Pilchuck is one of the closest peaks to Seattle, but I’ve somehow never skied it. Although it’s near the metropolis, it still holds lots of PNW adventure. We carried our skis through the woods, and cramponed up steep water ice. Pilchuck rewarded us with solitude, vertiginous lines, and good snow.
Awesome views from the upper peak.
After a bit of dirt walking, we started right into the meat of the first couloir.
After booting up the chute, we enjoyed skinning in beautiful light up to the top.
Skiing off the top. It’s a little hard to see in this photo, but in the distance you can see the skyscrapers of Seattle outlined against Puget Sound.
Dropping into our second couloir of the day. We were psyched to find good snow.
Jeff finding some nice snow. 3 Fingers Peak behind.
Jump turns and water ice in the crux of 3rd couloir of the day.
Jeff put together a video about our spicey day:
Pilchuck 1-29-17 from Jeff Rich on Vimeo.
Louie Dawson earned his Bachelor Degree in Industrial Design from Western Washington University in 2014. When he’s not skiing Mount Baker or somewhere equally as snowy, he’s thinking about new products to make ski mountaineering more fun and safe.
