triple pass | chair peak circumnavigation ski tour

11 miles . 3800 ft gain . 5420 ft high

via Bryant Couloir and Snow Lake Divide, Alpine Lakes Wilderness

It’s been a long time coming! For as long as I’ve ski toured (several years now), I’ve heard about the Chair Peak Circumnavigation. But I’ve always been daunted by it, even though I’ve done some bigger ski tours like Mount Baker or Eldorado in the North Cascades or Ruby Mountain. Only in the last couple years have I warmed up the the idea of skiing down Bryant Couloir since the word couloir always sounded steeper than I wanted, despite in reality being able to ski something that steep.

Our day began much earlier than necessary, thinking we’d visit the Tattoosh before we read an alert stating that the park would be closed. We made a quick u-turn and started driving home, thinking of all possible options. Crystal Mountain parking was full, we weren’t going to risk our chances there. However, we were willing to risk it for Snoqualmie Pass. Originally we wanted to ski the Zipper Couloir off Lane Peak for a fun challenge on our low avalanche risk day. So I proposed the Chair Peak Circumnavigation ski tour that features Bryant Couloir.

The thing about couloirs is that they come in a variety of widths and steepnesses and Bryant Couloir is rather wide and not terribly steep compared to many others nearby. It’s akin to an advanced black diamond run in a ski resort, but definitely on the narrow side depending on the conditions. It’s plenty wide to turn without learning to jump turn and I’m pretty sure this is one of the best first couloirs to dip your feet into.

We skinned out of the Alpental parking lot via one of the normal routes up to Source Lake. From here we met the many groups of people, some were out for fun and others were classes. Always such great people watching seeing the variety of skiers out there enjoying the sport! There’s a couple options to get to Snow Lake. We had a rather later start and wanted to keep things as chill as possible, so we decided to descend down the Snow Lake Divide. If you have the motivation, you can keep skiing up to Chair Peak and ski one of the north faces, but that’ll likely add an extra 800 ft of gain. We were thankful we chose that side since most of the north face slopes were still firm unless it was slightly exposed to sun in the morning. Everyone else skiing down the north faces of Chair Peak did not seem to have a fun time and had to gingerly pick their way down. Either way, make a safe choice for your group.

As we skinned across Snow Lake, we admired the view of the cliffs overhanging from Chair Peak. Oh and we had primo conditions to skate ski the lake too if only we had a lighter set up. Ahead of us we saw a couple groups make their way up the slopes under Mount Roosevelt. I’ve seen this from afar but had never ventured up here and was excited to explore myself! It is rather straightforward to gain Chair Peak Lake. There’s two relatively flat benches to reach, staying relatively in non-avalanche terrain as much as possible.

Between the sun and the early wake up, this uphill felt hard for me. But soon enough, I found myself on the last third plateau with beautiful views of the Snoqualmie area. Here we decided to keep skins on to descend to Chair Peak Lake. It’s so weird being back here in the winter instead of summer when I did the Roosevelt-Kaleetan scramble traverse. 400 feet later, we were on Melaka Pass looking down into our last basin. The skiing was some of the better stuff just purely due to aspect conditions. We traversed east of the creek, letting ourselves lose elevation as we got to proper Melakwa Lake.

Our final ascent laid before us. I knew it would be nearly 900 ft of elevation gain, but somehow it flew by so quickly! We took the least steep path possible to get up, following and older skin track that was super slick. It was honestly better off track. There’s a nice flat section to take a break without feeling so airy half way up the slope. This ascent is definitely in avalanche terrain so I would not attempt it on higher avalanche risk days. The cooler temperatures and imminent storm clouds were a great motivator for me. At some point we decided that booting would be much faster and safer than slipping on the steep skin track. At the top of the couloir, I took a quick break before looking down at the slope we’d have to ski. The final descent, Bryant Couloir.

One section at a time, I had to take some deep breaths. On a better snow condition day, this would have been so fun and lovely. But today, it was broken up avalanche debris and skied out terrain. Truthfully, I sideslipped most of the narrow and steep parts of the couloir, wishing the snow was better condition to feel more comfortable making more turns. I felt validated when my ski partners also did more side slipping than I’ve ever seen them do, and they’re much better skiers than me. Picking our way down, we finally made it through the messy debris and out to the familiar Source Lake terrain.

Phew, back to what I know. Most people had already gone home since it was late, but we didn’t mind. There was still plenty of day light! And we would be home by dinner time, my favorite goal of ski tours. So, I challenge you — are you going to take the leap and ski the Chair Peak circumnavigation?

Photos taken on Canon EOS R5