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Trip Stats

Date: May 11th 2007
Location: Washington Pass, North Cascades
Start Elevation: 5,170ft
Top Elevation: 8,085ft
Total Elevation Gain: 3,065ft

Trip Report


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We decided to head towards Washington Pass and see what we could find. While getting our gear together, we had the fortune to meet Michael, dressed in a purple leisure suite, drinking a Budweiser and ready to ski. He explained his route, but I thought I must have misheard, because it sounded insane.

Dale and I scoped out Kangaroo Ridge and spied a nice line, which we later learned is called “The Tit”, because of the protruding rock formation at the top. The skin up proved fairly tricky on the top half, as the snow was rock solid and the slope pretty damn steep. Not to mention that there were cliffs on one side. Needless to say, I made every step count and finally, even with ski crampons, I decided to boot the last hundred feet. We didn’t go to the very top, since the good skiing was below us.

And good it was. We entered a nice chute and enjoyed great turns. Half way down, we stopped and looked for the guy we meet earlier in the morning. Amazingly enough, he was perched on a ledge, preparing to do the route – a sheer snow face off of Liberty Bell and then into an extremely steep chute. I was nervous juts watching him, and was hoping he didn’t fall, because it would have been ugly. We sat in the sun and used Dale’s binoculars to watch him very slowly make his way down the face and into the chute. The rest of our ski was nice and we had a celebratory beer with Michael once he emerged from the chute.

liberty bell and the insane ski line dale near the top dale me me again dale looking towards liberty bell dale
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