No Headlamps Required - 1/8/26

By Spencer Raslton

Looking at the forecast ahead, Thursday looked to be the last good day of weather before a warm up/rain event. I called up Tyler and got ready for an awesome day of skiing. 

We left the parking lot just after 7 a.m., headlamps still stashed away. A quick left turn put us on the Gulf of Slides Ski Trail, skins sliding smoothly as the day slowly came into focus. Jackson’s blue skis looked especially sharp against the snow. Above us, clouds clung to the ridge, and we hoped they’d soon blow clear.

Climbing into the Main Gully bootpack, our grins grew—the snow had filled in nicely and was shaping up to be something special. Wind tore across the ridgeline, so we transitioned 200–300 feet below it, sheltered and ready.

The first turns down Main Gully confirmed our suspicions. Tyler threaded the icefall, while I stayed skier’s right, hugging the more vegetated side. Below the ice bulge, the skiing shifted from good to great. We stopped briefly for calories, already eyeing our line back up—time for lap two.

Four hundred feet later we were at the top of Main Gully again, below the ridge. We crossed over into Gully #2. Tyler opened up some nice turns. I made more conservative turns and joined Tyler at a choke point. I went skiers right and after a convexity I triggered small wind slab. I moved quickly to the side as the debris went passed. We made more cautions turns to the bottom of the gully. Discussing the slope ahead, we decided to continue up Gully #2 as a boot pack. We again, traverse below the ridge line and on to Gully #3. 

Gully #3 was beautiful untracked snow, and we enjoyed soft and now sunny turns to the bottom. We crossed over... more like schawcked over, to the Fingers (see photo above). Another long and now very warm boot pack to the last run of GOS, Gully #5. The top was slight icy, but below that we enjoyed more great turns and the schwack out to the main trail was not as bad as we excepted.

We ate and dried out skins on the GOS Trail and prepared to make the long slog over to Huntington Ravine. It took time, but we made it to the Huntington a little before 2pm. We looked up and decided that North Gully (WI3 Steep Snow 500 ft), look like the best objective. After discussing many descent options with Yale Gully (WI2-3 Steep Snow, 1000ft) looking the best, we left the option for other possibilities to descend. 

North Gully was the cherry on top of the day. We shed our skis and poles and had light packs as we ascend the wet ice and supportive snow. We cruised to the top and enjoyed a moment at the top of the route. The light bounced around the ravine. Enjoying it, we further discussed the descent route. We again, decided on Yale Gully but left it open to change plans. After dropping into Yale, we stopped and turned around. Commenting on the snow starting to form a wind slab. We thought the possibility was low but the consequences high if we kept descending. I smiled. More time in the alpine. We traverse over to Escape Hatch, as the light put on a show on the Wildcats. We descended down Escape Hatched and battled tree wells to get into The Fan of the ravine. Now fully bonked, we ate some snacks and then skied out the Fan and over to the Sherburn Trail. Racing day light.... but never needing our headlamps.