With the goal of summiting Glacier Peak in mind, Mattie, her brother Aidan, their cousin Chris, and I set foot on 10 miles of trail through the forest. Mattie and I with skis on our backs, climbing 5,000 feet from dense undergrowth and jungle to alpine snowfields.
While we didn't end up making the additional 7-mile push to the summit of Glacier, Washington's most remote volcanic peak, we did end up having a good day skiing on the spring corn snow. We also had a "field day" where we practiced self-arrest (stopping while sliding on a glacier) and haul systems to pull someone out of a crevasse.
