Matt and I decided to take advantage of the arival of summer and headed up to Rainier in search of some corn. We decided on Unicorn peak mostly because of the awesome name but also because it has two north facing cols would probably have the lowest slide danger.
I grabbed my first pair of homebuilt skis Matt had a borrowed pair of Tuas.
We started out from the car booting across the bench towards snow lake. Where we got our first glimpse of the peak.
Having not been to unicorn before we did not realize that we chose the wrong boot track. As we climbed the ridge we were able to see down to snow lake, where we should have been. Not wanting to go back down, we continued up towards Foss Peak untill we were high above the cliff band
Matt slapping on the planks.
From here we pulled a ski-for-your-life traverse across the hanging snow field between Foss peak and the cliffs below. In retrospect this probably wasn't the smartest move but, hey, we're still alive.
We skied down into the upper basin below Unicorn peak were I strapped on my skins and skinned up to the bottom of the col leading up to the Unicorn saddle. We continued booting up the col and finally up the peak itself.
The horn looking back at Tahoma
We dropped our packs and scrambled up the horn to get the full panoramic view. Rainier, Adams, Hood, and St. Helens. Although not in the picture, we could see that the traverse from The Castle is still open though the south east facing slope onto the unicorn glacier had a lot of debris on it.
The scramble to the top
And the view
We ran back to our skis to start enjoying the corn. My skis performed great and the snow was perfect. The super soft tails made me feel a little wobbly but the width and low sidecut kept things fun.
We skied both cols and then quickly skinned back to the car. All-in-all a great day.
June 16: Unicorn Peak
Moderators: Head Monkey, kelvin, bigKam, skidesmond, chrismp
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- Posts: 105
- Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:15 am
- Location: Cascadia
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- Posts: 105
- Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:15 am
- Location: Cascadia
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- Posts: 105
- Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:15 am
- Location: Cascadia
The North West really is a great place to make summer turns. I just made it up to Silver Mt. near Snoqualmie pass this afternoon. The snow is patchy at best but there was still enough to get in a few arcs. I had a few hours free and had just read on Turns-all-year the snow was almost complete up Silver. It may have been continuous but it was not easy going.
I took my trusty ugly sticks and set off skinning through the woods. After climbing to about 4600 feet I decided I had had enough. The conditions were not great, a dusting of pollen on fresh pine needles. In the shadier areas it mellowed out to VW sized sun cups over stream beds. I arced back down to the car being careful not to fall in any creeks. An ominous cumulonimbus looming over Cle Elem was the last reason I needed to cut and run.
Not bad for JULY FIRST! (not to mention that I was barley higher than the lowest point in Colorado)
This is the view from my turn around point
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/263 ... 663ac1.jpg
and the end of the road
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/263 ... caa7cb.jpg
I took my trusty ugly sticks and set off skinning through the woods. After climbing to about 4600 feet I decided I had had enough. The conditions were not great, a dusting of pollen on fresh pine needles. In the shadier areas it mellowed out to VW sized sun cups over stream beds. I arced back down to the car being careful not to fall in any creeks. An ominous cumulonimbus looming over Cle Elem was the last reason I needed to cut and run.
Not bad for JULY FIRST! (not to mention that I was barley higher than the lowest point in Colorado)
This is the view from my turn around point
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3278/263 ... 663ac1.jpg
and the end of the road
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3061/263 ... caa7cb.jpg
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- Posts: 105
- Joined: Fri Sep 08, 2006 9:15 am
- Location: Cascadia
In my excitement I almost forgot the real reason I logged on. I was going to post some more photos of my homebuilt skis in use on Unicorn Peak.
The climb up. Here I was still able to skin. These sticks have a bit of mini rocker to them which makes skinning on hard snow less effective. But most importantly they worked well enough that I could still keep up with the retired peak baggers.
Live the dream.
There are a few more here
http://flickr.com/photos/mattdcook/sets ... 929063431/
The climb up. Here I was still able to skin. These sticks have a bit of mini rocker to them which makes skinning on hard snow less effective. But most importantly they worked well enough that I could still keep up with the retired peak baggers.
Live the dream.
There are a few more here
http://flickr.com/photos/mattdcook/sets ... 929063431/