First Snow at Cutthroat Pass

Larch Madness really ought to be a national holiday here in Cascadia. If you aren’t familiar, Larch Madness is the week or two at the beginning of October where the larch trees turn from green to yellow, creating a stunning (but fleeting) scene in the high alpine. Larch trees live high in the mountains, and only in a few places, and so when they start turning people from all over flock to these places to catch a glimpse of them. Think leaf peeping in the northeast, but with much more effort, and in the alpine. It’s great fun, although the crowds can be rather tiresome.

This year, larch season kind of got away from me a bit, and so it wasn’t until the very tail end of the season that one of my buddies and I penned a day on the calendar to get out. Our original plan was to do Wing Lake and start really early, aiming to get ahead of the hordes of people on the Maple Pass loop. The forecast looked nearly ideal, calling for clear skies and maybe a dusting of snow. Snow always makes the larches pop, so we were stoked. On the drive out, however, it quickly became apparent that the forecast was very wrong. Instead of a dusting of snow, there was at least a foot, so we changed plans and went to Cutthroat Pass instead, reasoning that the boulder field on Wing Lake would be way less fun in postholing snow.

The conditions turned out to be all time. A few people were there before us and broke trail through the snow, so the walking was relatively easy. The snow completely changed the character of the hike, and the contrast of the snow on the larches was spectacular. Of course, there was snow on all of the surrounding mountains, and when the sun started peeking through the clouds, we got some absolutely fantastic light. Definitely a highlight day in the mountains, maybe even better than when I did Maple Pass in the snow.

Enjoy this collection of images!