The climb wasn't quite over. We needed to hike another 500 vertical feet to reach the West Peak (our starting point for the NFNWR). This wasn't a problem after warming our legs up during the first few turns off the top. It was probably around 1pm when we started skiing the face. The top part isn't too bad -- 30 degrees. The snow wasn't quite as nice as we had hoped for. Small wind drifts made for a bouncy ski. I took a photo as the slope turned steeper -- 40 degrees. The snow here was smooth but firm. This would not have been a good place to fall.
Charlie turns near the top. You know it's steep when you can't see what's below you.
The steeper the firmer. The new snow must have blown off the face because there was little to be found. There was one point where I actually took off my pack to trade my ski poles for and ice axe but then I thought -- if I'm going get down this thing alive, I need to stay on my edges. Balance is the key to staying on your edges to I decided to stick with my poles. I would consider this section the crux of the ski as the slope approached a constant 45 degrees. 500 vertical feet below was the top of the rockband that divided the face. Charlie was already down there and I joined him after a few tense turns.
Charlie begins the crux section. Notice how firm the snow is. The North Ridge follows the skyline.
We now needed to decide which side of the rockband to ski on. On the right (east) was a 40 to 45 degree slope of firm snow. On the left (west) was a 40 to 45 degree slope with patches of new snow. We decided to go left. The new snow gave us a better edge and allowed us to screw up and fall without sliding to our death. I made sure of this.
Charlie finds a patch of new snow on the west side of the rockband.
The snow had softened up by the time we got to the base of the rockband. Now came the traverse. With the cliff lying some 500ft below, we made our way towards the Adams Glacier. We weren't exactly sure where to cut in but we knew we were close. We traversed to the edge of the glacier, skied a couple hundred feet down and found our spot.
Charlie begins the traverse to the Adams Glacier. Never look down.
We thought it would be over once we reached the glacier but we were wrong. A few crevasses kept the adrenaline going. We were fine as long as we kept our speed. We tried not to stop but I couldn't help myself from taking another photo. I think I made the right choice.
Charlie making turns on the Adams Glacier.
We skied our way out of the danger zone. I took one more photo to help me believe what we had just done. It was quite a remarkable feeling but it wasn't over yet. We had another 1000 vertical feet of skiing back to camp.
A look back. You can barely make out our traverse below the rockband in the center of the face. We skied just to the right of the rockband (right as we look at it now). The crux was a couple hundred feet above the rockband. You can also see the cliff that we were trying to avoid. The previous photo was taken to the left of the cliff.
Glory shot.
All the snow had melted back at camp. We packed up and headed out. I thought I knew the way down but I was mistaken. Our previous day's tracks were gone and we ended up getting lost. I had wandered on occasion but this was the first time that I had truly been lost. We skied/hiked for 3 or 4 hours but nothing came of it. I figured that we would hit the road eventually but nope. We finally decided to traverse. I'm not sure why but this led us to a completely different trail, 5 miles east of the one that we had gone up. I knew that this trail led to the road so we followed it out. The problem was that this trail put us out 3 miles below our car. Regardless, we were both pleased when we reached the road. I ran back to the car in my boot liners and drove down to pick up Charlie. I found him zipped up in his sleeping bag trying to hide from the misquotes. It was dark by now.
What should have been a two hour ski down to our car, turned out to be a six hour epic. I had to be at work in Seattle by 6am the next morning. We drove back to Packwood where we called our parents and told them that we would be a little late. We got back to Yakima around midnight and I made it to Seattle by 3am. A couple hours of sleep and I was ready to go. I might not have had the energy to work but the thought of having skied the NFNWR of Adams kept me going. This was definitely the highlight of my ski career. Charlie and I debated as to whether we'd do it again. Was it worth the risk? (see Spring 00)