Highway 20 and the North Cascades Ski Tours

Burly terrain and more isolation around every turn makes the North Cascades off Highway 20 hold some of the most remote mountains in the lower 48 and gave me gives both Splitboarders and Skiers endless options. Here is a through list of my explorations in the relatively unknown.

Mount Pugh on the Mountain Loop Highway

Snowboarding to the Straight Glacier

With the unusually warm winter and lack of snowfall, peaks and highways usually inaccessible until late spring were accessible much sooner in the season. Mount Pugh along the Mountain Loops Highway is one such otherwise dormant destination. It was an early start as Jason and I left Tacoma around 6 a.m. Our plan was to meet up with Conor at a Park and Ride before driving to the Mount Pugh Trailhead. We feared that the Forest Service road would be gated blocking us over 3 miles. We were quickly relieved to drive all the way to the parking lot. It felt like spring as we packed our gear onto our backs and climbed miles of dirt trail under a blazing hot sun. Soon enough the snow pack went from nonexistent to three feet deep as we entered Glacier Peak Wilderness.

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Whitehorse Mountain Sufferfest in the Cascades

Looking at Whitehorse Mountain in Washington
Looking at Whitehorse Mountain in Washington
Snowboarding Whitehorse Mountain in the North Cascades

Whitehorse Mountain in the North Cascades of Washington is one of the wildest easy access ski tours around. With direct access from Darrington the North face is some of the steeper and more open lines out there. If you are willing to deal with a nasty approach it is a great ski tour.

With large amounts of accumulation over the past few days and a forecast of partly sunny skies and lower freezing levels Hannah and myself were ready to tackle something big. The question was where to go and what area would deliver quality snow. Whatever it was it had to be north facing and top out at a relatively high elevation. After combing topos and passing ideas back and forth there was one peak that kept on coming up, Whitehorse right outside of Darrington had all the right components, a long North facing run, relatively easy access and A summit just under 7’000 feet.




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Blue Lake Cirque: Highway 20

Blue Lake Chute near Washington Pass

Blue Lake is a popular area off of Highway 20 during both Summer and Winter conditions. Located near Washington Pass it is an easy place to get to with some good skiing in the area. Being the starting point of the Birthday Tour that is usually the main reason people go there. With good terrain within the Cirque most people pass by some of the best skiing around. With the first big storm of the season hitting the North Cascades Drew Tabke and I were looking to ski. At the moment Highway 20 was still open but it was a mater of days before closing. Soon enough WSDOT wouldn’t be managing the area. It was a race against time.

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Easton Glacier Route on Mount Baker

With the Weather forecasts looking promising for the weekend Scott and I decided to make a quick push for the Summit of Mt Baker at an elevation of 10781 ft. I had done the Colman Demming route before and wasn’t to impressed by the ride/traverse down so we decided to head for the Easton Glacier approach which had a much better fall line. During the winter/spring Easton is a snow park and is littered with snowmobiles so it keeps most climbers away.

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