Ski Touring in Washington State

All of these pictures were taken in the late l980s and early 1990s in the area around Snoqualmie Pass, Washington, except for the picture of Mt. Ranier (first frame) and one of Mazama Ridge. Snoqualmie Pass is located approximately 45 miles east of Seattle, Washington. Some of these pictures were taken at ski areas, but the ski areas were not operating at the time so that the snow is largely untracked. On average, we would get a one foot dump once a week at the Pass. The snow would deteriorate rapidly after it stopped snowing, but if you got there early it was still powder so that we routinely got to ski untracked powder a foot deep about once a week, on average, during the winter. Most of our skiing was done on alpine touring gear with climbing skins, but we occasionally switched to Telemark skis, just for variety. The last picture shows the author on Kendall Ridge on February 24, 1991.

Category:

Sports

Tags:

• Ski touring
• powder skiing
• Washington Cascades
• Snoqualmie Pass
• Telemark skiing
• ski mountaineering