The weekend before last, in the midst of this unusual mid-January high pressure system, Adam and Matt and I went out and climbed Chair Peak, a mountain that I’ve been near countless times but had never summitted. Although the NE Buttress is the classic ice climbing route, we opted instead to climb an easier route via the bowl to the east of the mountain so we could ascend what we were planning on skiing. It ended up being a great day out with stunning views from the top - an excellent choice given the conditions and our other constraints.
We got a leisurely start, leaving the throngs of AIARE courses in the Alpental parking lot and heading up past Source Lake towards the Snow Lake Divide. As we climbed towards the divide, there were neat wisps of clouds blowing up the Alpental Valley and over towards Snow Lake. We made quick progress up past the Thumb Tack into the big basin to the east of Chair Peak, and, rather then climbing the SE Face “gully” that is the standard descent route for ice climbers, we headed one gully further climbers’ left which looked like better skiing. We booted up the last bit of this gully to reach the South Ridge, then, with no promising skiing ahead of us, left our skis for the rest of the climb. We descended about 50 vertical feet on the west side of the ridge to bypass a rocky rib, then roped up to simul climb a traversing pitch of steep exposed snow to reach the ridge again. We made a short rappel to get past a step on the ridge, leaving a fixed line for our return, then booted up a steep gully and easier snow to reach the summit.
Clouds below The Tooth from the skintrack on the way up.
Matt demonstrating his nutrition strategy for optimal performance. Chair Peak behind.
Matt and Adam skinning into the basin below the East Face of Chair Peak. We climbed and skied the widest gully just above Adam.
Adam booting up the gully that we used to access the South Ridge of Chair.
A neat view of the skyscrapers in Downtown Seattle poking out from behind Mount Si’s Haystack, with the Olympics across Puget Sound in the distance.
Adam leading a pitch of steep exposed snow, with Chair Peak’s summit in the distance.
We ran into a party of ice climbers on the summit, and said howdy before retracing our steps back to our skis. The gully we had climbed out of the basin was pretty steep but very aesthetic, although with variable wind crust our turns were perhaps less aesthetic. The basin below the ridge was pretty mediocre skiing, with one or two decent turns, and pretty soon we were skiing chunder down the Source Lake fan and racing out the luge track back to the ski area.
Adam just below the summit of Chair Peak, with Snow Lake below to the left.
Matt and Adam descending the gully below the summit of Chair.
Adam and Matt descending steep snow towards our skis.
Adam skiing the steep gully above the eastern basin of Chair Peak.
All in all it was a great trip!