A nice walk essentially tracing the first bit of the Ptarmigan Traverse and looping around Hurry-Up Peak. This was my first time skiing at Cascade River Road not doing Eldorado and boy were the views mindblowing. I definitely need to make it out here more often!

Morning light on Johannesburg while walking Cascade River Road. Earlier in the season it seemed to be gated up to the hairpin turn but for whatever reason the park service backtracked it to the Eldorado parking lot, adding an unexpected 1.2 miles to start the day, 1.8 more to go.

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Gaining Cascade Pass, familiar views of Eldorado in the back

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Now with Forbidden and Sahale visible too

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Working our way up Arts Knoll, Mount Formidable looming

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Looking back the way we came, the pointy backside of Johannesburg

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Booting up Plan B Couloir, the imposing Spider Mountain in the background

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Love seeing snow on this beast, some generational ski lines here

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Me dropping in the Plan B Couloir. Juuust on the edge of fun skiing before mank at 11:30am (I was originally aiming for 11am), maybe 15-30 minutes later we would have moved on. Skied down to where the rock walls end further down below. This one is definitely worth doing if time and conditions allow.

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I was mentioning to the group how the peaks of the North Cascades kind of become familiar characters, with killer looks you come to recognize from different angles. I think Danny mentioned that he didn’t do a ton of research on the Cascades and what an intro to the range! Baker.

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Shuksan

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Eldorado

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Forbidden, Sahale + Boston

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Buckner. Tons of endless mountain views beyond these peaks to the east and south but they never translate on camera (neither do these).

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Our tracks down the S Glacier - more big mountain north facing ski feel than I expected! The conditions changed from boot top pow to pow with ice chunks to corn. We had to countour all the way skier’s right to just make the gully lest we get cliffed out by rock glaciers.

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Skinning up to Alliteration Col (aptly named as it sits between Magic Mountain and Pelton Peak, ha) with Trapper Mountain behind. Trail breaking through some serious mush earlier.

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Great corn on the upper Yawning Glacier. Filled up our last bit of water at the thawing Pelton Lake and now for the final skin to Cascade Pass!

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Solar halo effect. I had no idea that the wispy cirrus clouds are the necessary component for halo formation due to their ice crystals, neat!

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Notes

• This was probably ~18 miles and ~10400 feet of vertical gain in around 10 ½ hours.
• Kind of notable how straightforward the day was, how great the views were, and how surprisingly good most of the descents were including the fun slush down Cascade Pass. The only “bad” skiing was the firm bits (through hard avy debris sometimes) before Arts Knoll and the previously noted mush near the bottom of Yawning, but nothing heinous. I would happily revisit this one.