Yesterday was Day #4 on Chris Davenport, Daron Rahlves and Jess McMillan’s Ring of Fire Tour. One would expect Day #4=Volcano #4 but this trio of world class skiers also fit in Volcano #5. So not only did they summit and ski Mt. Thielsen with a summit elevation of 9,132′ yesterday but also Mt. Bachelor 9,065′.  Mt. Thielsen, by the way, is part of a series of extinct volcanoes in Oregon (along with Mt. Washington, Three Fingered Jack, Mt. Bailey and Diamond Peak) which are also known as the Matterhorns because of their steep, spire-like summits. Check out Chris Davenport’s report from Mt. Thielsen, the highest Matterhorn, here. And check back tomorrow as they continue on to the Three Sisters in OR.

We’re super, super excited to hear that WSDOT has officially announced that the North Cascades Highway SR20 will open TOMORROW NOON @ Eastbound milepost 157, Rainy Pass and @ Westbound milepost 160.5, Whistler. Once again: WSDOT ROCKS! Huge thanks to the WSDOT teams (of which our friend, John Stimberis, is a member) for their hard work on clearing the highway and keeping us safe. State Route 20 is a designated Scenic Byway that is the northernmost route through the Cascade Mountains in Washington. There are endless backcountry skiing and snowboarding routes in this zone. Current readings: Rainy Pass @ elevation 4890 has 93″ snow depth, 36F and Washington Pass @ 5450′ has 92″ snow depth and 35F. Washington Pass is where TNT, Andrew Eckels and Jacob Mandell backcountry skied on both sides of Blue Lake Col last June. You can read that report here and also see the video of that ski trip below. WSDOT is still working on Chinook Pass and hopes to have that open in time for Memorial Day weekend. As is the case every year in WA, the winding down of lift operation marks the opening of access to some of our best backcountry touring regions.  Don’t miss out on this season. With the most snow in the nation, it’ll be around for the taking for some time. Be prepared: click on the Pro Ski and Guiding Service logo on the right for alpine touring instruction, gear and guided trip – and by all means, keep it safe and live to ski another day. See you out there.

Here is a super sweet line Andy knocked out recently with a few friends just outside Whistler heading towards Pemberton. Mount Matier sits in the Lillooet Range which has endless epic lines Andy keeps on feeding us with our morning coffee. My hope now is to get Andy down here to Washington to aid in some big game hunting I want to do real soon (you know Davenport and company are slaying our volcanos very soon and I need Andy go help me “shoot some big game” in HD). Fasten your seat belt for the knife blade ridge Andy descended from the summit for the NW Face.

Day #3 on the Ring of Fire tour yesterday had Chris Davenport, Daron Rahlves and Jess McMillan summiting the beautiful Mt. McLoughlin in Oregon’s Rogue River National Forest. This 9.495′ volcano is Jess’ favorite so far. She posted a great report here and gave a nice shout out to our friend Amar Andalkar’s site www.skimountaineer.com – the definitive site for info on skiing the Cascade volcanoes. Here’s a quick video of them at the summit of Mt. McLoughlin. Earlier today, they tackled Mt. Thielson and then headed over to Mt. Bachelor – apparently, no day off needed for this trio of super human athletes!

Cayuse Pass is now OPEN thanks to our amazing WSDOT teams. The 4,675-foot-high pass connects to Chinook Pass (5 miles away and not yet open) and White Pass on the east side of Mount Rainier National Park and the Cayuse Pass summit is at the junction of State Routes 410 and 123. WSDOT plans to open the North Cascades Highway SR20 the day after tomorrow, i.e. Thurs. May 10. Opening these WA mountain passes gives us access to a vast amount of backcountry skiing and snowboarding terrain. With lifts closed at all but Crystal Mtn. in WA, the spring backcountry touring season is about to get into full swing. As mentioned before, the best way to get started or advance your backcountry skills is to visit with the pros: Pro Ski and Guiding Service for gear, instruction and guided trips. We have a logo link to their website on the right side of this page. Be safe, have fun and live to ski another day!

Felt more like early summer today with bluebird skies and temps hitting the 70s. But the snow conditions are still spring like: we’re still skinning from/skiing to the Hyak (aka Summit East) parking lot at Snoqualmie Pass although there are some creeks and grassy spots opening up not far from the base. Today, we headed up the face and continued up to the powerline’s tower at Hyak’s summit. From there, we had a nice long ski down a good pitch towards the lake. We then headed back up to the tower, down towards Hidden Valley on the backside of Hyak, back up to Hyak’s summit and down the Dinosaur run under the East Peak chair. Snow skied great. Check out the video to see what the conditions are like.

Day #2 of the Ring of Fire tour had Chris Davenport, Daron Rahlves and Jess McMillan at Mt. Shasta yesterday. This volcano in California rises up 14,179′ making it the 2nd highest peak in the Cascades. Here’s a video of them at the summit. Today was Day #3 at Mt. McLoughlin in OR and they’re at Mt. Thielson for tomorrow’s climb and ski. We’ll continue to post updates but you can also follow this fast moving group on Twitter and Instagram using #VolcanoTour and at blog.spyder.com (w/ an excellent trip report from Daron) as well as on chrisdavenport.com.

Exciting news for backcountry skiers and boarders: Cayuse Pass SR123  is tentatively scheduled to open tomorrow, May 8, at 12 p.m. noon.  On the North Cascades Highway SR20, the WSDOT teams are now about 1.5mi apart. They’re working towards opening this Thurs. or Fri., May 10 or 11. Lastly, Chinook Pass located at 5,430′ on SR410 between Enumclaw and Naches is tentatively scheduled to open on May 25th for Memorial Day weekend. Thank you WSDOT!

While we were celebrating Cinco de Mayo and skiing the new snow that fell on Alpental, WA yesterday, Chris Davenport, Daron Rahlves and Jess McMillan summited and skied Lassen Peak, a 10,457′ volcano in California. This was the 1st stop in their “Ring of Fire” tour and it went well: it wasn’t even mid-afternoon when I got an email from Chris saying they were down Lassen and already at their next stop, Mt. Shasta. Apparently, they got an early start and were geared up by 615am. Also, being world class athletes (among many other accomplishments -Chris is a World Extreme Skiing and Freeskiing Champion, Daron’s a former Olympian and U.S. Ski team super G World Champion and Hahnenkamm champion and Jess is a 2x Freeskiing and 3x Freeride World Tour Champion), well, these 3 obviously motor – fast. Chris sent us this picture of the sun rising on the northeast face of Lassen behind their RV.  Beautiful (and I’m not talking about the RV which is pretty rad). Here’s a video report from the summit with Jess, followed by Chris’ video of their ski down. Looks amazing. Enjoy and check back for more news as Chris, Daron and Jess continue their trip to climb and ski our Pacific NW volcanoes.

Happy Cinco de Mayo 2012 and happy Bday to our own TNT! What a way to celebrate – with mucho mas snow coming down hard at Snoqualmie Pass, WA right now -even below 3000′ just west of the Pass. Traction tires advised…  Cinco de My-oh-my!  Alpental’s going to be off the hook – in case you haven’t checked, the top of Alpental received 16″ new in the last 48hrs as of 11ish yesterday a.m.  With a cool start to the day, we expect TNT’s going to have a great Bday.  Needless to say, Alpental still leads the nation with the deepest snowpack of 204″ on top.  With more new snow, the Backcountry Booter Jam at Alpental is going to be a great event. Registration is $20 and will be open to skiers and snowboarders. Check in at the Alpental lodge after 8:30a.m.  From 10am until 2pm, riders and skiers will throw down their best tricks on multiple features in the Alpental BC in a relaxed jam format judged by Northwest Freeride coaches. Be sure to sign up and check out the event. See you there.

6:14am update: Sting here again – TNT’s reporting 4″ new in last 24hrs at base and top of Alpental with top receiving 20″ in last 48hrs and get this: 27″ in last 72hrs!  Temps in the low 20s on top so it’s going to be a deep POWDER Cinco de My-oh-MY day.