Merry Christmas, folks! While I’m in warmer climes for the holidays, two weeks ago I got out with Adam and Matt and a few other friends for a full day of ski touring near Stevens Pass.
We had a single day forecasted of nice weather, and with a decent amount of fresh snow, I was excited to get out and do a big day of skiing. I also really wanted to photograph the sunrise, so I left home at an unpleasant hour, planning on meeting the boys a bit later. I drove up to Stevens in the dark, arriving at the upper parking lot a bit past 6:30 am. The parking lot was empty and silent, full of fog, and I headed out into the peaceful forest, skinning up the road towards Skyline Lake, which I crossed before heading up towards the ridge above.
Predawn fog glowing in the morning light at Skyline Lake.
As I climbed up the ridge, I popped above the predawn fog and into clear skies, with a beautiful early morning glow lighting the trees. I reached a high point on the ridge shortly before sunrise, and had stunning views down into the Nason Creek valley to the east, with wisps of clouds blowing through the valley below.
Nason Creek valley before sunrise, with Rock Mountain and Mount Howard in the distance.
Soon the sun began to illuminate the distant peaks of the Dakobed range, with Clark and Luahna glowing orange, accentuated by a bit of fog in the air. On the west side of the Cascade crest, the valleys were full of clouds, with only the summits poking out like islands. Sloan Peak’s distinctive profile looked dramatic, and the Monte Cristo area summits a little further west filled out the panorama.
Clark and Luahna in the morning sun, made hazy by a lingering patch of fog.
Mount Howard and Rock Mountain above Nason Creek.
The Monte Cristo Peaks and Sloan Peak poking out above clouds to the west.
Backlit trees and fog above Skyline Lake.
It was a beautiful morning, but I had to ski down to meet up with Adam and Matt. I ripped skins and zipped down the road, then made a quick visit to the parking lot porta-potty before heading a short ways down Route 2 to link up with the boys. We had been offered a sled tow a few miles in by some friends of ours, and after getting organized, soon we were a few miles up a snow covered Forest Service road. We started skinning along the forested creek, and soon were battling through the brushy bottom of a huge slidepath.
Adam following Matt through the woods.
A bit higher up, we made our way onto more open slopes and into the sun, which felt a bit more powerful than we were expected. Plenty of kick turns later, we reached the summit above the slide path, and enjoyed more great views of Glacier Peak and other summits before getting ready to ski down.
Our friends on the sunny skintrack, with a few lingering wisps of clouds.
Mount Phelps, Grotto, Baring, and Index from our summit.
Adam dropped in first, and looked great making turns in the sun until just out of sight. Unfortunately for him, he was still in sight when he leaned too far forward and fell over the handlebars, victim of another classic case of forgetting to put his boots in ski mode. The rest of us skied after him, and we had time for several more laps on less solar aspects before the sun started getting low in the sky. A few minutes before sunset, we dropped in for our final lap, and had great skiing in golden light all the way back down to the valley bottom.
Adam skiing sunny slopes on our first lap.
…and getting a little air on some shadier slopes.
Skiing down the south face at sunset. Mount Fernow in the background.
We weaved through the brush at the valley bottom as the light faded, and met up with our buddies for a quick tow back to our cars. A really great early season day.