Kevin's Blog: South Ingalls and point 7646 (6/20/09)

We recently had a record 29 consecutive days without rain in Seattle, however, it's been a different story in the mountains. Sure, good weather was in places, but we had not chosen wisely to find it (see previous hidden lakes peak post). So we watched the forecasts like hawks and decided to go to the east side of the crest to what looked like the place with the best forecast, even if it was a slightly longer drive. We decided on Ingalls pass/Headlight basin to get out of the city and get some turns in. Lucas loves the area and was the one pushing specifically for it. I've been there a couple of times to attempt/climb

Mt Stuart and it's such a nice place that I love going back. So Four of us (Lucas, Ryan, Blythe and myself) got to the trailhead and put the skis on the back and started hiking up.

The hike up to Ingalls pass is nice, but not necessarily spectacular. We covered just over 2 miles and about 2000 ft in about 90 minutes. Thankfully we started walking on snow about 100 ft from the pass and at the pass we were greeted with a a beautiful view of Headlight basin and Mt Stuart, as always with its top covered in a cloud, and plenty of snowcover for some excellent skiing. We rested and changed into ski boots/clothes when we got a few visitors in camp as Lucas described as "ridiculously too cute:" a few baby goats (accompanied by mommas) that couldn't been more than a few days old. (Personally, I think he has been hanging out with his dogs too

much making everything ridiculously too cute, but I'll have to agree with him on this one.) We rested in the entertainment of said goats. All around us the goats were coming out of cracks in the rocks. We also saw a coyote run across the snow field that we would skin across later. This turned out to be a great wildlife day which also included a ridiculously fat marmot (not too exciting), a frozen mouse in the snow (could have done without), a deer on the road (kinda dangerous), and several bulls on the road (wtf??? and no, not 'wildlife').

We made our way over to S. Ingalls. We transitioned from boot to skins a little too much for my liking, but all was good. We made it up with little difficulty while at the same time, looking at all the possible chutes for the ski down. A painless climb with nice views on top. Pic is the four of us on the summit. We had lunch and watched what must have been 5 or so groups on E Ingalls peak (the highpoint of the three peaks) rock climbing. Some of the pitches looked fun (I might have to go back), but still a little crowded. After lunch, we got to ski! The snow was nicely consolidated and soft offering some fun skiing. Pic left is our chosen line down. Our route up took us a little to the right (with a little booting on rock), and then a ski to 20 feet from the rocky summit shown in pic. The continuous line from the summit included a little steep 3 feet wide 'couloir.' There was a too little room for error with that line so 3 of us downclimbed 20 feet as to avoid that area while Ryan nailed it. The rest was pure June ski enjoyment - steep and great snow! Pic is lucas

coming down on said terrain.

We then headed back up (South) to another highpoint (~7646') skinning the whole way. The lines down looked great - nice open, steep faces. Pic shows Lucas and Blythe skinning up to the highpoint (Ryan and I took a slight detour for the fun of it). After another break we were greeted with another awesome run down. We managed to glide over to the pass without needing to don the skins (a pleasant

surprise) where we were greeted with Mt. Stuart finally coming out of the clouds. We retrieved the trail runners, changed, and had an uneventful hike out.

All in all it was a great day. 5060' gain/loss over the day. Headlight basin is a great place to ski, or just hang out and hike! The weather stayed sunny nearly the entire day, it was a great location, great company, and great skiing. Just what the Dr ordered for the four of us needing to flee Seattle.

View to the W from Ingalls summit, including Mt Daniel (highest point in King county)