I’m on the record as saying it was a pretty dismal winter, and I also mused that skiing this summer was going to be the worst. While both of those things remain true, skiing is still skiing thus AWESOME, and skiing when no one else is skiing makes it all the sweeter. Thus chasing snow remains fun even though the snow you find is sub-optimal.
I last updated you on my Turns All Year progress in mid-April. I’m happy to say the streak has remained alive, and I celebrated 47-crazy-months at the beginning of September skiing in my favorite place: Rainier National Park! A a lead up to that, I was surprised by great snow and stoked friends in late April and all through May into June, so without further ado here are some of my favorite photos from skiing in late spring:
April (42): April wasn’t over when I wrote about an April 4 trip to the Nisqually Chutes, which turned out to be so much better than anticipated. Here’s a trip report if you’re interested.
On April 26 I found myself again in Rainier National Park, this time with seven friends on Naches Peak. I’d never been to that part of the park before and was excited to explore a new area. We did a lazy circumnavigation of the peak – maybe gaining a thousand feet of elevation – while enjoying beautiful views, good company, and interesting terrain.
April 4: Freshies on Rainier.
April 26: Ready to charge Naches.
Yes, that is powder in late April.
To the surprise of no one, I made everyone line up in ROYGBIV by ski boot color.
May (43): May has been my best ski month of the year for the past two years. With five good days this season was no exception. I spent two days on Glacier Peak, a long day in the North Cascades, and two more days in Rainier National Park chasing turns. Glacier Peak was an epic – the summit eluding Theresa and I yet again – and will earn its own blog here in the future. The Birthday Tour has been on my bucket list for a long time, and I wrote a quick trip report about that on the TAY forum. Then it was another friend-filled celebration to Rainier for Theresa’s 30th Birthday Ski and a quick trip up to Muir just because.
I have SO MANY photos from May. Here are just a handful of my favorites:
May 2: Theresa on Glacier Peak.
May 3: Imran at sunrise at Glacier Peak.
May 3: The cloud of defeat.
May 3: We didn’t summit, but I sure did have a fun time skiing. Photo by Theresa Sipple.
May 10: Goat prevents Stephen from moving up on the Birthday Tour.
May 16: Happy Birthday Crew on Inter Glacier (Rainier). Yes, you do count 20 people with backcountry skis.
May 16: Pretty standard day in the alpine.
May 16: Jordan climbs Inter Glacier.
May 16: Happy Birthday ladies at the top of Steamboat Prow!
May 26: Taking the skis for a walk on Rainier.
May 26: Made it to camp!
June (44): With June seeming to “come early” this year, I took a Wednesday off at the beginning of the month to guarantee turns. Theresa and I headed back to Inter Glacier. We were SHOCKED by the conditions, noting the melt-out was much more what we would expect to find late August, not on June 10. But we had a fun time despite her forgetting ski poles (it’s only her 56th month of TAY…. she’s pretty new at this) and I wrote a fun little trip report of our day.
Then just a few days later Jordan and I went to Adams to ski it in a day. That wasn’t the original plan actually, but we opted for more comfortable sleep and lighter packs. We therefore climbed Adams in a day, skiing back down the climbing route because we ran out of time to ski the famed SW Chutes. It was a sufferfest, but very rewarding when we hit the top!
