On Memorial day weekend Mount Rainier National park opens the gates to its NE side up to White River Campground (usually a month later sunrise opens). Dan, Tim and myself wanted to go touring but the weather was looking nasty so we decided to head to Glacier Basin and Yakima Peak if the weather didn’t work out.
Being stubborn we decided to head in Friday night an build a snowcave for shelter then ride both Saturday and Sunday but the Weather had other plans. Conditions were horrible the first night we got soaked building the snowcave and it started puking snow on the outside.
The next morning we woke up to limited visibility and about a foot of fresh so we hiked up a south facing run to do a quick warmup lap.
Once we made it up we had Tim go first and with his first turn he caused a big wet slide so it was obvious we were going to have to be careful.
After seeing the wet slide and being completely Soaked we decided to head out and stay the night at the Crystal Mountain Dorms and head up to Chinook Pass the next day instead.
When we drove up to Chinook Pass we decided to head over to Yakima Peak and see if we could find some good lines to ride.
After making it up to the top all we could find was one solid North facing slope in mediocre snow but we made the most out of it.
Once we were done with the line we decided it was time to head back to the car and call it a day.
The trip was a learning experience to say the least but we had a great time exploring Glacier Basin and Yakima Peak over the weekend. Soon we were back at the car up on Chinook Pass.
Thank you for reading this trip around Corral Pass. If you want to see more ski tours within Crystal Mountain Backcountry check out this link.