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sea of rugged peaks that make up the North Cascades are considered by many
to be the most beautiful mountains in America. In the 1960s and 1970s, ski
mountaineers ventured to many remote summits, but with the primitive ski
touring gear of the time, rarely attempted steep descents. During the 1980s
and early 1990s, equipment improved for touring, and skiers responded by
crisscrossing the range, pioneering hundreds of miles of high-level routes
and bagging many peaks on foot. These traverses were made using equipment
chosen for long distance travel and peak scrambling, not for steep skiing.
In the late 1990s, with few high routes left to be explored and with equipment
continually improving, skiers began packing high performance ski gear deep
into the North Cascades with the express goal of tackling steep terrain.
A rather extreme example of this trend was the descent of the northwest face
of the southwest summit of Dome Peak in 2001 by twins Jason and Josh Hummel
and Ben Manfredi. In late-August they carried skis, poles, and boots through
forest, brush, and talus fifteen miles before setting foot on the snow of
the Dome Glacier. They crossed the glacier in tennis shoes, switched to boots
to climb and ski the northwest face of the southwest summit—finding
poor late-season conditions—then shouldered their ski gear and walked
back out. In total, they hiked more than thirty miles for a ski run of less
than a mile.
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Carl Skoog and Andreas Schmidt descend the north
face of Hurry-Up Peak. © Lowell
Skoog. |
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A more reasonable approach was required for the north face of Mt. Buckner,
first skied in June, 2002, by Andrew McLean, Fred Marmsater, Petra Pirc,
and Martin Volken. Volken, a mountain guide, had spent several years exploring
ski routes around Snoqualmie Pass and had recently published a guidebook
to that area, the first in Washington to cover steep ski descents. When McLean
and friends arrived from Utah to ski Liberty Ridge and found conditions poor
on Mt. Rainier, Volken suggested Mt. Buckner as an alternative. Their trip
brought attention to the potential of the Cascade Pass area, with its high
glaciated summits, for steep skiing. Later that month, Alan Kearney and my
brother Carl skied the Ptarmigan Traverse, making steep descents on Spider
Mountain and Sentinel Peak. Two weeks later, Carl and I, with Andreas Schmidt,
skied the ‘S’ Glacier on Hurry Up Peak, a 3500-foot descent above
Trapper Lake.
In 2002, Ben Manfredi, having recently graduated from college and having
taken a job in Bellingham, emerged as the most prolific of the new group
of Cascade steep ski mountaineers. In June, with his brother Troy and Charlie
Berg, Manfredi skied the Coleman Glacier headwall on Mt. Baker, a route whose
previous history is the subject of much rumor and speculation. On the July
4th weekend, with Jason and Josh Hummel, Manfredi skied three routes on the
north side of Mt. Adams in three consecutive days, including first descents
of Stormy Monday Couloir and Lava Glacier Headwall. In late July, he skied
the north face of Mt. Maude, a route that his partners chose not to climb
due to obscuring clouds and potential objective danger.
In 2003, the last year of this summary, more than a dozen significant new
descents were made by various parties. In April, Armond DuBuque and Harlin
Shepard skied the north face of Mt. Cashmere, which included 45- to 50- degree
slopes above a 200-foot cliff band. A month later, Mark Simon skied the Stuart
Glacier Couloir on Mt. Stuart, down-climbing the steepest and narrowest portion.
In mid-June, Peter Avolio and Martin Volken descended the skiers’ right
side of Spider Mountain’s north face, and a week later my brother Carl
and I skied the northwest face of the north ridge of Forbidden Peak.
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Carl Skoog descends the northwest face of the
north ridge of Forbidden Peak in June 2003. © Lowell Skoog. |
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This burst of activity was fueled in part by the revolution in communication
created by the World-Wide Web. Thanks to personal web pages and special-interest
bulletin boards, ski mountaineers are now able to share trip reports and
route conditions and meet potential partners in a fraction of the time required
only five years ago. There is little doubt that some competitiveness between
ski mountaineers is also stimulated by this exchange of ideas. The global
Internet is also a boon for the historian—much of the activity occurring
today would have been recorded only sporadically, if at all, before the emergence
of the Web.
No one was more active in 2003 than Ben Manfredi. With the Hummel brothers
and Sky Sjue, he completed more than a half-dozen significant new descents
including the Fisher Chimneys and Price Glacier on Mt. Shuksan, two couloirs
on the north face of Colchuck Peak, the Lyman Glacier on Mt. Adams, and the
Roosevelt Glacier headwall on Mt. Baker. Most spectacular was Manfredi’s
five-day trip into the Picket Range with Jason Hummel and Sky Sjue, during
which they backpacked 90-pound loads up Big Beaver Creek from Ross Lake and
skied the northwest flank of Luna Peak and the northeast face of Mt. Fury.
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| Charlie Berg skis the Coleman Glacier headwall
on Mt. Baker in June 2002. © Ben Manfredi. |
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At 24 years of age, Ben Manfredi proved himself to be the boldest and most
energetic of Cascade steep ski mountaineers, but what he might have accomplished
in later years will never be known. In November, 2003, Manfredi died in a
kayaking accident in the Grand Canyon of the Elwha River in the Olympic Mountains.
His enthusiasm inspired many who followed his adventures vicariously through
his website, CascadeClassics.org. We can say without hesitation that the
Cascades have entered a Golden Age of steep ski mountaineering, and this
is due, in no small part, to Ben Manfredi’s contributions. His tragic
and untimely death adds poignancy to the question of what the next decade
of ski mountaineering in the Northwest will bring.
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| Chronology
2000+ |
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• 2000, July 16
Mt Baker, North Ridge
Rene
Crawshaw, Carl Skoog* |
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• 2001, May
Alaska Mountain, SE Face
Chris
Solomon, Martin Volken |
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• 2001, May
Big Snow Mountain, East
Cirque
Jim Graham, Jim Sammet, Martin Volken |
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• 2001, May
Klawatti Peak, SW Face
AMGA
exam group |
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• 2001, June
Mt Rainier, Tahoma Glacier
(complete)
Matt Farmer, Ned Randolph |
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• 2001, August
Dome Peak, NW Face
Jason
and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 2002, May
Tieton Peak, North Face
Jason
and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi |
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• 2002, June 15
Mt Buckner, North
Face
Fred Marmsater, Andrew McLean, Petra Pirc, Martin Volken* |
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• 2002, June 24
Spider Mountain, South
Couloir
Carl Skoog* |
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• 2002, June 25
Sentinel Peak, North Face
Alan
Kearney, Carl Skoog* |
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• 2002, June 15
Mt Baker, Coleman
Headwall
Charlie Berg, Ben and Troy Manfredi* |
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• 2002, July 5
Mt Adams, Stormy Monday
Couloir
Jason and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 2002, July 6
Mt Adams, Lava Glacier
Headwall
Jason and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 2002, July 10
Hurry Up Mountain, ‘S’ Glacier
Andreas
Schmidt, Carl and Lowell Skoog* |
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• 2002, July 28
Mt Maude, North Face
Ben
Manfredi* |
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• 2003, February 2
Mt Shuksan,
Fisher Chimneys
Ben Manfredi, Sky Sjue* |
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• 2003, April 6
Mt Cashmere, North Face
Armond
DuBuque, Harlin Shepard* |
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• 2003, April 18
Mt Johannesburg, Cascade
Couloir
Jason Hummel, Sky Sjue |
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• 2003, May 2
Mt Shuksan, Price Glacier
Ben
Manfredi, Sky Sjue* |
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• 2003, May 10
Colchuck Peak, NE
Couloir
Jason and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 2003, May 11
Colchuck Peak, North Buttress
Couloir
Jason and Josh Hummel, Ben Manfredi* |
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• 2003, May 12
Mt Stuart, Stuart Glacier
Couloir
Mark Simon* |
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• 2003, June 15
Luna Peak, NW Flank
Jason
Hummel, Ben Manfredi, Sky Sjue* |
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• 2003, June 16
Mt Fury, NE Face
(upper)
Jason Hummel, Ben Manfredi, Sky Sjue* |
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• 2003, June 17
Spider Mountain, North
Face (east)
Peter Avolio, Martin Volken* |
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• 2003, June 25
Mt Baker, Roosevelt Headwall
Ben
Manfredi* |
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• 2003, June 26
Forbidden Peak, NW
Face of N Ridge
Carl and Lowell Skoog* |
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• 2003, June 28
Mt Adams, Lyman Glacier
(north)
Corey Bloom, Jason Hummel, Ben Manfredi, Sky Sjue* |
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