Ski Touring Snoqualmie Pass

Lower Flanks of Kendall Peak Area

March 19, 2011

My friend Bryon Free was finished with his finals at CWU so we marked this weekend for some climbing or skiing. As it worked out, it snowed about 10 inches Friday night so we met at the Hyak Ski Area parking lot for some backcountry telemark skiing!

The night before I had driven up to do some skiing with my nephew Finley and I had a slow drive back down beacuse of all the snow. Traffic was even worse because of a 10 car pile up on the elevated section of the highway just a mile west of the summit. Saturday was a different story as it was a beautiful sunny day and the road was bare and dry!

Bryon's lab, Matilda, joined us and was full of energy as we skinned up from the parking area. There were three other parties that we met on our way up: a party of two randonee skiers, a pair of splitboarders, and another group of three randonee skiers.

The sun was shining brightly and we felt like we were in Colorado with the fresh snow AND sunshine! Most of the skiers were heading up to the backside of Kendall Peak, but Bryon and I cut left down to Commonwealth Basin. We made some sweet turns in lots of fresh, soft, snow! We then skinned up a few hundred feet higher, under the east face of Kendall and skied in the small trees before heading back up and down to the car.

The warm sunshine had turned all the new snow into heavy "mashed potatos" but it was still alot of fun skiing back to the car. Thanks Bryon for some great skiing in the sun!