Trip Stats
Trip Report
Tim and I decided for an alpine start for our tour. We parked the car not far from the Gold Creek Trail Head and began the long and boring slog to the Lake Lillian Trailhead at 5:30am. Once at the trailhead, we threaded our way up the steeps, and cut to far looker's left, coming out on the North side of Lake Laura. Regaining our bearing, we continued up to Lake Lillian and then onto Rampart Ridge. Our initial plan was try to continue towards Alta Pass, but we were behind schedule and visibility was poor. We hunkered down on the ridge, caught some mediocre views as the mist occasionally parted, and finally skied back down to the lake.
Not wanting to ski back down and do the slog out, we consulted the map and determined that we may be able to skin North of Lillian and hook up with a chute that would bring us down to Gold Creek. With our fingers crossed, we ascended, and after a lot of second guessing, reached the chute. It was less steep than it looked from Hyak (it is the V-shaped chute when looking down Gold Creek from Hyak), and the ski was actually pretty good. We opted to not follow the chute all the way down, as it tightens up and we weren't sure whether or not it skied thorugh (looking back later in the day, it looks like it did). The ski down the bottom half was wretched, contending with numerous holes and thick brush and trees.
