classic funfetti birthday tour | washington pass ski tour

5 miles . 3300 ft gain . 7600 ft high

Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest

If you’ve been ski touring a while, you’ve probably heard of the Birthday Tour. It was one of the first ones I had heard of when a friend was presenting a trip report and mentioned the percent chance you’d ski the Birthday Tour on your birthday. Needless to say, I was thoroughly confused by the name of the tour. And I still don’t really know how its name came about, perhaps some simple internet search would do. I prefer to think about it as the yearly opening of the North Cascades Highway, a birth if you will.

The opening of the North Cascades Highway is a big deal for many outdoor recreationalists in Washington. All of winter, the highway is closed due to avalanche risks, and I assume limited budgeting to keep the highway open when other passes can be readily used. Just prior to the opening, WSDOT allows bikers and pedestrians to travel on the highway car-free on the weekends. This is because they are still working on fully opening the road for cars and plowing the whole highway and rest stops, but for bikes, it’s safe to ride with caution since there is no active machinery on the weekends. If you’re interested to bike the North Cascades Highway, be sure to follow the WSDOT social media for the latest updates. And right when the highway opens to cars, backcountry skiers flock out there for the fresh snow and spring corn skiing. Since Washington Pass sits at 5500 ft, it’s one of the few destinations you can drive up and ski straight from the parking lot, deeming it a great option for spring skiing.

There’s plenty of other trip reports on the Birthday Tour. So I won’t go into too much detail. In my opinion, it’s quite straightforward. There’s a reason why certain paths, hikes, or tours are popular. The trees are spaced out, you can see your destination and there’s a sense of exploration (minus the hundreds of other skiers out there). For new backcountry skiers, you’re probably used to out-and-back ski tours. This one has the novelty of starting and ending somewhere new. It’s a traverse, best done with a car shuttle or short hitchhike. 

Trailhead: Blue Lake

Most people start at Blue Lake, so drop one car off at the famous Washington Pass hairpin turn, but be careful to stay truly out of the way of highway lanes. Since it is spring skiing, you’ll want to optimize for corn skiing, and for us, we didn’t need to start until 9am. We figured since we had partly cloudy skies, it would take a longer while for the snow to soften. Completing the tour counter clockwise means starting with a south-facing descent (though the opposite would give you similar — a southwest slope).

For some reason we didn’t see many people through the forest. Perhaps all the groups were just taking marginally different paths. We picked a skin track that looked good and didn’t much question it since it went in the right general direction. But as we started to get above tree line, we started seeing more and more groups taking breaks at the same spot. From only seeing 1-2 groups at a time, we were quickly seeing 5+ groups. And reaching the last bench before the steep uphill, we started to see probably a dozen groups. People behind us, people ahead. I was thankful that a good boot pack was set for us already.

We took a nice break before the last 300 feet of steep because we weren’t in any rush, waiting for the sun to come out. The boot pack, per usual for me, was well spaced but still sometimes the steps were too high for me. This is probably the situation where you should use your discretion for safety gear. If you have an ice axe or even crampons, it could be nice to put on. We just put on our helmets. Soon enough, we reached the col by Blue Lake Peak and found at least 50 more people sitting and waiting. I could even count the number of times I overheard people say “it’s a party”. And honestly, yeah, it was quite loud. This is not the tour you want for solitude.

If you are looking for solitude, literally go anywhere else! I was joking that last time I was here on skis, I did the “anti-birthday tour” or what I also named as the Kangaroo-Wallaby Ski Tour. As in I did a different loop that wasn’t this very popular tour. It was just a little longer in length but felt much more exploratory since we only saw perhaps 2 groups out there, plus 5 ridges to gain vs 2 for this one.

I probably could have done more research, but I had previously assumed we’d pass Blue Lake, a short hike I have still yet to complete. But in reality, we went mostly straight up next to the Liberty Bell Group. This definitely made a lot of sense given the terrain. 

First Descent from Blue Lake Col

When we sat at the saddle, we saw plenty of groups who had decided to ski down early. I’m unsure why if not on a time schedule because it was chattery, icy slopes. We decided to wait. And we were once of the first of the next wave of nearly everyone else to descend. We had a couple great sections of perfect corn, so I couldn’t complain! Skiing fall-line is perfect too. Other people opted to stay high and traverse but they ended up getting stuck and having to take their skis off over bare patches. Perhaps they saved 5 minutes of time, but I enjoyed our turns.

Down here, you meet up with Copper Pass Trail, one that I hiked while climbing Stiletto Peak several years ago. I didn’t recognize anything! A great skin track was set, again, likely a day or two ago. We followed it up and up, away from Copper Pass.

A couple people decided to head due east to a supposedly lower angled pass, but I’m not sure that it would have made a huge difference other than aspect. That would have likely resulted in ascending a third ridge over Kangaroo Pass. We semi-blindly followed the masses, which I thought the route appropriate. 

Second Descent from Pica Peak Col

When we reached the saddle east of Pica Peak, we stared down at the couloir we needed to ski. 200 feet of icy mess. We waited, yet again. But then we got fed up with waiting and decided to head down anyway. There’s a delicate balance of waiting for the sun to warm up the slope and people shoveling all the light snow off as they chatter their way down. 

I’m sure the entrance to this changes over time, but I definitely had to hype myself up. As much as the Birthday Tour is considered a beginner-friendly tour, it definitely is for advance skiers. Surprisingly, the conditions we got were decent for the first 50-100 feet and then the ice truly began. At least the slope was getting less steep. Slowly we made our way down, not trying to set any records here. Eventually, our descent merged with a summer climber’s trail back to the hair pin turn. I thought this exit was not very snowboard friendly for our splitboarder in our group, but it also wasn’t the worst situation either. Back at the car just a few hours after we started, it felt like a full, but not overly exhausting day! 

Notes

• If you plan for a car shuttle, arrive early enough to find parking. Park one car at the hairpin turn and one at Blue Lake Trailhead, being considerate that there’s limited space. 
• I truly think this is a rather straightforward tour, but depending on conditions, this tour can be spicier or easier than normal.
• I’d encourage you to be comfortable with steep snow (up and down) before committing to this tour. An ice axe is helpful, but boot crampons are probably not necessary. Ski crampons, like for most spring ski tours, is super handy! As much as I don’t enjoy using them, they were a great security item.

Photos taken on Canon EOS R5