Atlantic Peak: Northwest Passage

And on May 20, 2007, Bob Portmann, Ellen Hollinshead, and I climbed Atlantic from Mayflower Gulch, with our eye on the NW face. This turned out to be a fantastic ski: perfect corn on a long slope at a consistent angle of about 35 degrees. This line has been called The Bermuda Triangle, but I respectfully suggest Northwest Passage, since that goes from Atlantic to Pacific, and this is the NW Face. The photo below shows Atlantic's summit right of center and the ski line going down from the summit and exiting the left side of the photo. On June 8, Chet Roe, Jonathan Kriegel and I returned and we skied a little steeper line: the couloir that starts at the smooth flat area in the photo below, about 500 feet below the summit. Conditions were poor: icy and fast. Not fun for me. We can call this Baffin Island, as it is near where the Northwest Passage starts. It is a bit of an exit problem at the bottom. The first photo below shows both lines: NW Passage in the rear, and Baffin Island in the center, starting from the flat area on the ridgetop.

Here is Ellen Hollinshead starting down the amazingly consistent Northwest Passage.

Next is a shot of NW Passage on Atlantic taken on a solo tour up the side of Pacific on May 21, 2008.

May 8, 2009. It was still a bit early to find corn, but we tried this route, approaching it from below. It was firm, but skiable. Approaching from below when in doubt about conditions is sound practice.

Here is a view on May 26, 2011, from the ridge on the north side of Mayflower Gulch. This shows the pleasant valley between Atlantic and Pacific, and the ascent ridge on right.

On June 3, 2017, Randy Garrison and I climbed the ridge and skied the face in perfect conditions, dropping in at 11:10 am. 6.5 miles, 5.5 hours, car-to-car skiing. Here’s the view 5 days later, from Jacque Peak. The big white face is Atlantic’s.