Trip Stats
Trip Report
Arriving at Chinook Pass at 7:15am, I was skinning down the frozen snow shortly after and after a quick 15 minute skin reached Tim's camp at 8am. He had just gotten up and Kenny and Maria were still asleep, so I told Tim I was going to poke around the peak and would catch up with them later. The skin up to Peak 6547 from Tim's camp took a little over an hour. It was fast moving on the slopes with my ski crampons and I wrapped around towards the bowl to avoid the cliffs on the ridge.
After resting on the top for 20 minutes and without seeing Tim, Maria and Kenny moving away from the camp, I decided to ski off the backside of Peak 6547. The snow was soft and I ended up skiing down to a small lake and the bottom of the valley. I weighed my options and decided I would wrap around a ridge and try and connect to the bowl rather than skinning back up the slope I just skied. It is always a little foolhardy to ski tour by oneself, but I felt good about the conditions and route and I had some friends nearby. While skinning around the ridge, I encountered a half-bare slope and had to boot for part of the way. Once on the snow, I quickly skinned up into a small bowl in between the ridges. I decided to reach the top of the ridge so I could see where the group was, fearing they might be waiting for me at the top, as it was approaching noon. But once on the top, I didn't see anyone on Peak 6547. I walked along the ridge away from Peak 6547 and found a suitable slope to ski down into the bowl. Putting my skins on, I began the slog up the bowl towards the top. Once out of the trees, I saw a couple different groups reaching the top.
On the way up, I crossed paths with Tim and Maria and we skinned to the top, meeting up with Dale and Kenny. The ski down was nice, although a bit short. We headed back towards Naches Peak, and Dale and I decided to ski down into the valley and then skin up towards the camp, rather than doing a traverse. It went well and in retrospect, I think I would have taken that same approach getting to Peak 6547. Back at the camp, it began to pour and we all took shelter in Tim's tent and waited for the rain to stop. Finally it let up and we quickly made our way back to the car at Chinook Pass.
