The past 10 days have been a photographic and travel whirlwind, starting in Washington and ending in Iceland, with many stops along the way. I’m excited to share more pictures soon, but for starters the first leg of the craziness was an early season ski trip in the Sawtooth mountains east of Lake Chelan.
I had wanted to do another trip to get some more Washington fall in before being out of the state for a bunch of travel, and the Sawtooths are a great place to hang out in the larches. But once the the first big early season snow storm popped up in the forecast, I figured it was time to pull out the skis. There was a twist though: of everywhere in the state, the place forecasted to get the most snow was… the Sawtooths, with the National Weather service calling for 20 or more inches on Sunday! This seemed a bit fantastical to me, but in retrospect I think it was probably spot on.
Monday morning I headed up 153 with a decidedly minimal plan. It was still pretty cloudy, but the forecast called for clearing as the day went on. I headed up the Gold Creek road and pretty quickly ran into snow, then pretty quickly got a flat tire. Booo to changing out the spare in the cold slushy mud. I continued up to the trailhead, which was deserted, with only one or two other cars. There were 4+ inches of snow on the ground at the trailhead, so I felt optimistic about my skiing ability, and I was able to ski all the way from the car. I had initially been toying with the notion of going to Cooney or Eagle Lakes, but I wasn’t sure how quickly I’d be moving with the snow, so I took the conservative option of heading up the Crater Lake trail, which was completely untraveled. It was easy skinning up the trail, but still slow going, breaking trail through a bunch of fresh snow, and with my flat tire delay and slow start I didn’t reach lower Crater Lake until almost 3:30 pm.
Partially-frozen lower Crater Lake, with larches mixed into the forest and the south side of the Crater Creek valley in the background.
I took a quick break, filled water, and waffled about the right strategy. It seemed fun to try and summit either Bigelow or Libby, but I didn’t have much daylight and wasn’t sure how quickly I’d move. Once again, I took what I thought was the conservative strategy, and decided to head to the Crater Peak-Libby col, which seemed like the easiest point to gain the crest of the ridge for views to the west. I ‘schwacked around the lake and continued through slow, brush forest before getting on easier terrain as I approached the talus near treeline. Skirting the edge of the talus, I climbed up to the col without skiing on too many rocks and without too much trouble, passing through some beautiful larch forest.
Looking back east from just below the Crater-Libby Col, with lower Crater Lake in the distance below.
With about an hour until sunset, I decided I’d try and climb up the ridge towards Crater Peak, for a nicer vantage point. In the summer, this would be an easy talus scramble, but it was a different story in ski boots with 12+ inches of fresh snow. I strapped my skis to my pack and started what quickly became an absolute wallowfest. I skittered off icy rocks in my boots, postholed up to my chest in places where the snow had drifted between rocks. In 45 minutes I had made it barely 200 horizontal yards, so I decided to bail and retrace my steps to back to the col. It hadn’t cleared up quite as much as I had hoped, but it was still a lovely sunset, with nice views to the west over the Buttermilk Creek drainage.
Evening sunlight on the larches below the North Ridge of Crater Peak, looking down towards Buttermilk Creek. Star in the clouds behind Seance.
Bigelow’s western subsummit at dusk, with Hoodoo Pass hidden behind, and the snow in the foregrounded covered in larch needles.
After it got dark, I pulled out my trusty bivy sack and trompled out a flattish spot just below the ridge before hunkering down to get out of the wind. I made dinner and settled in for a properly chilly night - I’d guess it was in the upper teens based on how it felt and the WA pass weather station. When I woke up after a not-too-cozy night at first light, it was crystal clear (and cold!) bluebird morning. I struggled to cram my feet into my frozen-solid ski boots and started snapping photos of the amazing sunrise and light on the larches.
The Buttermilk Creek valley at dawn, with Star and Oval to the right, and Earth’s shadow clearly visible above the horizon.
The sun pops over the horizon to the east, with lower Crater Lake frozen over in the valley below.
Raven Ridge and Libby Peak to the north, lit with brilliant morning light that made the larches pop.
Seance Peak (Pt. 8067) catches the first rays of the rising sun while Star Peak, taller and farther away, remains shaded by Raven Ridge.
Larches above lower Crater Lake look amazing when backlit by the rising sun.
Gorgeous larches on the south ridge of Libby Peak.
The eastern subsummit of Bigelow (Pt. 7890) looms over larches above Crater Lake.
Morning light on the rocky ridge above my campsite, with lower Crater Lake below.
Once it felt like I was just taking the same pictures over and over again, I headed back to camp to make breakfast and pack up. With the cold overnight weather, all the water I had carried up from the lake had frozen solid, and I ran out of fuel melting snow, so I finished my hot cocoa and decided to scram. I packed up, clicked into my skis, and started gingerly skiing down towards Crater Lake. It was stunning skiing among the larches, but I did hit rocks at just about every turn—still worth it. A but lower, the skiing got better, and I threw my skins back on to ski through the brushy forest. On the way out I went around the south side of Crater Lake, which was much easier going than the north side. The lake was noticeably more frozen-over than it had been the day before, and I snapped a few more pictures before ripping skins for the final ski down the trail. It was a bit flat in spots, a bit exciting in others, and before long I was back at my car. I drove down into Twisp where the nice folks at Les Schwab fixed my flat for free, and then I drove back to the west side over beautiful snowy Highway 20 and had just a few hours to unpack and repack before going to the airport to catch my red-eye to NYC and eventually Norway. More on that soon!
Sharky pow-skiing among the larches.
One of the last patches of open water along the shore of lower Crater Lake. Crater Peak in the distance - I camped at the saddle to the right.
Fun and fast skiing down the Crater Lake trail back to the car.