If you have even been on the summit of Crystal Mountain on a sunny day there is a good chance the Sourdoughs have caught your eyes. Across the valley from 410 lies a small range of ski worthy peaks that I had wanted and planned on riding for years but for one reason or another plans never seemed to pan out. But finally the stars alligned to pull off the Sourdough Traverse.
Dege on the left and the Palisades on the right with Fremont in the distance
Hoping that the rain shadow and marginal forecast would pan out I arrived at the White River trailhead around 4 p.m. on Saturday. I carefully chose my gear in preparation for a consistent downpour and hiked up the Glacier Basin trail leaving the bootpack below the 3rd Burroughs. Following the creek I quickly broke into into alpine and with a rather aggressive skin track skinned to the all the way to the summit. From the 3rd Burroughs I rode down the north side and skinned over to Skyscraper finding perfectly carvable snow on the north face all the way down to the lower basin. With the sun setting and the rain starting to drizzle I put on a rain shell and skinned SE into a lower basin then climbing directly up the west face of Fremont where I used the trail as a catch line to find the lookout shelter. I climbed steep muddy slopes in the dark rain and made it the lookout at around 10:30.Once I had shelter I switched over to dry layers, made some warm tea and hung out in my Bivy bag listening to the roaring wind and feeling the lookout shaking all within the warmth of my sleeping bag, it was quite the surreal experience.
Looking down on the Emmons and Curtis Ridge from the 3rd Burroughs
The next morning I watched the sunrise to the East cast alpenglow over Rainier basking in the rain shadow before finally getting some sleep. I woke up at 8 A.M. and followed the trail down to Frozen Lake where I switched to skis and traversed all the way to Dege Peak. From here I had to options either I could bail and hike the Sunrise road 7 miles or start the Sourdough traverse which according to my GPS slide mountain (my exit) was 4 miles, I went for it.
Sunrise from the lookout with the Palisade in the middle and Slide Mountain on the upper left.
Looking back at Sunrise and Glacier Basin from Dege Peak
Deges was a great ski before dropping into the flat basin and skinning directly north passing numerous small lakes and small alpine peaks along the way. With time constraints I decided to focus my attention on the Palisades which held some steep colouirs that I wanted to see check out and possibly ski. I quickly found out they were some of the steeper lines I have seen in MRNP but had melted out at there cruxes. After a few scouting attempts I scurted around the east side and made my way towards Slide Mountain where Boot was waiting at the exit.
What I came to see, the Palisades!!!!!!
In total the Sourdough Traverse was 24 miles and 14,000 feet. While it was great to finally ski these lines I wish I hadn’t rushed it so much and took my time.
It was really weird to look East and see the backside of Crystal and if you are wondering…….YES there is a bunch of snow up there
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