Congratulations to Chris Davenport and Jess McMillan on finishing their Ring of Fire tour during which they summited and skied 15 volcanoes in the Pacific NW in 14 days. Chris reports they ascended 77,000 vertical feet! After doing Mt. Rainier in 11hrs., the world champion freeskiers, Chris and Jess headed up to Mt. Baker where the Snow Troopers’ TNT and Andrew Eckels met up with them. Come and meet ski legends Chris and Jess in person as they celebrate the conclusion of their historic reign over the Pacific NW at their WRAP PARTY this Tues., May 22nd from 3-6pm at Sturtevant’s in Bellevue, WA (1100 Bellevue Way). More Wrap Party info below. See you there.

WSDOT is planning to reopen the road to Artist Point this year. Located at the very end of Mount Baker Highway SR 542 at >5,000ft elevation, only part of this 2.7mi long road was cleared last year due to deep snow and cold weather. This past week, the WSDOT snow-scouting team headed up and discovered snow pack reaching 30ft deep along the road up to the upper parking lot and about 50ft deep just before reaching that lot. Sounds like we should have no problem finding good backcountry skiing and riding in that zone this summer. WSDOT will begin clearing in June and hopes to have the road open in July.

WSDOT team hikes up to Artist Point with Mt. Shuksan in the background

We’re happy to report that WSDOT plans to open Washington’s 5,430′ Chinook Pass next Friday, May 25th in time for the long Memorial Day weekend. The backcountry skiing and riding is going to be incredible when it opens – in fact, it’s a perennial favorite of ours. Check out the photos below from WSDOT – we can’t wait to get out there. Thanks to WSDOT for all the hard work. This mountain pass is located on SR 410 (part of the Chinook Scenic Byway) between Enumclaw and Naches, at the eastern entrance to Mt. Rainier National Park, about five miles east of the Cayuse Pass summit.

Andrew Eckels & crew had the Coleman Deming route on Mt. Baker, WA all to theirselves with sunshine and powder most of the way. Unfortunately 1000 vf short of the summit, the cloud deck rose and they had to retrace their skin track through the white out almost all the way back.

Here’s an impressive data point from Chris Davenport and Jess McMillan’s Ring of Fire tour of the Pacific NW volcanoes: By his estimates, “they have climbed almost 60,000’ on twelve volcanoes in the nine days the tour has been on the road”.  Amazing. Even more amazing is that they completed Mt. Adams two days ago and Mt. St. Helens yesterday and this Ring of Fire tour which began on May 4th and concludes on May 21st has 3 more volcanoes remaining including the most massive of them all, Mt. Rainier. Makes us wonder if this tour will one day be remembered as the Ring of TIRED tour? at least that’s the name that comes to mind for us mere mortals. However, after tackling Mt. St. Helens yesterday, the team has today off so we’re sure they’ll be ready and strong for the rest of the tour. Here’s a video from Chris @ Mt. Adams with more details at his blog here.  Meanwhile, I took advantage of the clear weather and shot some aerials of Mt. Adams and Mt. Rainier on May 12th – check them out.

Mt. Adams from the West

Mt. Rainier from the West

Mt. Rainier from the SW

My bro Obadiah Ehly wrapped up his 10 day/10 ski day visit yesterday with a short trip up Hyak before we headed to Wenatchee so he could catch a train back to Northern Idaho. The main objective of his trip was to check out Alpental (via the lifts) over Cinco de Mayo, which we did. Due to the 32″ dump we received the week prior to Cinco de Mayo the upper gate wasn’t open and Obadiah never got a chance to lay his eyes on our “far lift served” backcountry. So this past Sunday morning we headed up the Alpental valley to play on some deep loose granular snow. There is still a lot of unconsolidated snow out there so travel safely and hit up our friends at Pro Guiding Service in North Bend for an awesome guided trip in our amazing playground.

The last few steps up to Pineapple Pass

Our AK connection, Corky Still, sent this one down of his recent local adventure where the city of Anchorage meets the lower flanks of the Chugach Mountains. This quick solo trip’s agenda was to hit the North Suicide Chute, so sit back with the morning coffee and take a wild May ride in AK.

The vid below is the Moment “Death Wish” ski review from this past SIA – Corky is the athlete in the end of the vid rippin’ them on the Winter Park hard pack. The Death Wish is also the same tool Corky used to slay the North Suicide chute.

Chris Davenport and Jess McMillan have now climbed and skied all the Oregon Cascade volcanoes on their list. In just the last 4 days, they hit Three Sisters, Mt. Washington, Mt. Jefferson and Mt. Hood. Read more about their OR adventures at blog.spyder.com. The weather’s been absolutely perfect in the Pacific NW – just take a look at these aerial shots I captured yesterday – It was so clear, I could make out the groomed lanes on Mt. Hood’s Palmer snowfield. 

The Cascades have finally begun a nice melt freeze cycle in the last few days. Earlier this week we were up in the Commonwealth on Lundin with about 8 to 10 inches of loose granular snow that remained from the 32 inch dump from the prior week, making things a little sketchy around noon. Two mornings ago, we headed up the Summer hiking trail for the Kendall Lakes with snow from the car at 2,500′. After a nice easy 4 hour walk, Obadiah and myself were eating lunch on top at 11AM waiting only about 30 minutes for our sweet Spring corn harvest! We ended up going for the valley floor, but decided to bail out skiers’ right into the timber about 300′ sooner because it sure felt like it wasn’t going to link (we didn’t want to get sucked way down only having to do a wicked boot pack back out). Live to ski another day – TNT

(L to R) Chris, Daron, Jess on Mt. Bachelor

As mentioned in our earlier post here, Chris Davenport, Daron Rahlves and Jess McMillan conquered two volcanoes on Day #4 of their Ring of Fire tour: Mt. Thielson and Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. Just when mere mortals would be taking it down a notch, this trio of world champion skiers, step it up and blow through two of our volcanoes in a day and have a great time doing so. Go Chris, Jess and Daron – Reigning over the Pacific NW! We like it! Here’s the fun (and funny) summit and ski video that goes with that post. Enjoy.