The wind was BLOWING hard at the top of Pikers, and everyone up there was sitting huddled together trying to stay warm. We couldn't tell where the wind was coming from, and was worried it was coming directly from the Southwest. As we got to the top of the chutes we realized that, yup, the top of the chutes were very icy, and the wind was blasting it. "Whelp," Eric said peering down the chutes, "you don't go up a big objective like this without being prepared to survival ski if you have to." We all nodded and went to making a plan of descent. We decided to stick as far skiers right as possible, where the sun was hitting it the most, and hope it got better on the way down. After 3 or 4 icy turns, the snow softened into very, very nice spring corn, and we all whooped and hollered down the beautiful Southwest side of Washington's second tallest peak.

Now... The traverse back from the bottom of the Chutes to the car has been notorious for bushwhacking and shenanigans, and we were fully prepared to need to do some thinking to get back to the car. Luckily we had read a trip report on TAY explaining to start traversing around 7,000ft and the report showed the best way to go. Thanks Brad Hefta-Gaub! We had to put our skins on only once more, and eventually slid back to the summer trail where we had a short walk to get back to our car. What an epic day! We were so happy to get such a nice descent in June, and were so happy that the ice was only present for a couple turns. Back at the car, we sat and drank a cold beer and had a quick snack before the 5 hour drive back to Seattle. Happy to tick off another classic.

For GPS track of where we went for the traverse on the descent, click on the picture to the left!