Distance: 5.9 mi.
Elevation Gain: 2800 ft.
Vanessa was working all weekend and I was able to recruit Laura for a Sunday ski day. Avalanche danger was moderate many places and it was most dangerous on sun exposed slopes, so I figured it would be a good time to ski some nice north facing slopes in the Tatoosh Range of Mt. Rainier NP.
After a somewhat leisurely departure we were arrived at the Narada Falls trailhead parking lot and were skinning up around 10:30. There were a lot of other folks gearing up and we leapfrogged a few on the way up the slope to the road until we reached Reflection Lakes. We then turned south off the road and roughly followed the Pinnacle Peak Trail up to the basin between Pinnacle Peak and The Castle. We continued east to the ridge that ascends to the ridge just east of The Castle and then took a break at the top to enjoy the beautiful weather, the views and a snack.
The snow on the north side of the ridge was pretty great powder but on the south side it was somewhat refrozen and getting mushy. We decided to drop into the bowl to the east of The Castle that drops to Louise Lake. We had some amazing turns in great powder down to a bench where we traversed to the left to a narrow area that would drop us into lower angle slopes where we could skin back up to the ridge we originally ascended.
We skinned back up the ridge and had another good break. When we first ascended the ridge we were entertained watching a handful of people climbing the south face of the Castle and they were finally rappelling down when we took our second break.
After some snacks and a beer we skied down in the direction that we originally headed up. We followed some ski tracks down and to the left of our up track which was a mistake. This took us into some denser trees and steeper slopes that were not fun to ski. We ended up having to do a long eastward traverse to get back to where we originally left the road.
Laura had some issues with sticky snow sticking to the bottom of her skis but once on the road it was easy enough scooching back to the slope just above the parking lot. It was getting surprisingly late and we made it out past the gate around 4:30, with a half hour to spare. The time change and warm sunny day made it seem so early! A great day out in a favorite spot.
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Reuben’s Hop Tropic
Gear Used:
- Avalanche beacon/shovel/probe
- Backcountry boots/skis/skins
- Glacier glasses
- GPS
- Helmet
- Trad gear
- Trekking poles
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Thanks for all the info! I am planning a tour in this zone for this weekend and I found your gpx track super helpful. I’d love to link up for a tour sometime if you’re interested!
Thanks for the post and track, took a shot on New Year’s Day, late gate had us come up short, but we will give it another shot
Awesome glad to hear it. It’s such a great area where you can do all kinds of different laps. Hoping to get out there again soon! Tiny baby making that a little difficult these days though.
The download for the track isn’t working for me. I am new to using Gaia, how do I find it on the app?
Sorry, I didn’t see your comment for quite some time, but once you download the track you should be able to open the file in you phone’s files and say open with Gaia if you have it installed.