The Magic S Loop is a creative and beautiful tour in the heart of the North Cascades. It combines incredible scenery, convenient travel, and quality skiing into possibly the best all-around tour in Washington. It travels through steep, rugged, glaciated peaks in a very remote part of the North Cascades. The descents include a narrow couloir, nice corn harvests, and a steep glacial face. This tour should be on every ski mountaineers list for the end of the long spring season in the North Cascades. The bang for your buck on this one is simply in a class of its own.
Begin from the Cascade Pass Trailhead. Assuming there is still snow basically down to the trailhead, you can ascend directly towards Cascade Pass on snow, veering right and then back left to get through a cliff band. Alternatively, you can just follow the summer trail through the trees, but this will be slower unless it is super late season (late June and July).
From Cascade Pass, cross some exposed slopes to the Cache Glacier (minimal crevasses) and ascend the left side to Cache Col, giving wide berth to the "Cache Death Blob", a giant 40 ft overhung cornice that threatens the right side. Cruise a downwards traverse to Kool Aid Lake. This is where the route deviates from the classic, but poor-skiing Ptarmigan Traverse.
Climb up to the gap between Arts Knoll and Hurry Up to get an incredible view of the North Face of Spider! Descend and traverse left until beneath a narrow south facing couloir, "Plan B Couloir." Boot up this couloir. From the top, you can ponder a bonus lap down this excellent run. At the top of the couloir, a short side trip leads to the summit of Hurry Up Peak and unobstructed views across the majestic North Cascades.
The next descent of the S Glacier is the biggest descent of the day. The upper roll is about 45 degrees and watch out for crevasses. As you get lower and it seems like it will cliff out, trend right then back left down through a miraculous gully that dumps you out. Traverse left quickly beneath some seracs and icy slabs to get out of the hangfire. Next, do an easy climb up to Alliteration Col between Magic Mountain and Pelton Peak. The Yawning Glacier descent is mellow and usually holds beautiful north-facing corn. Down in Pelton Basin, begin one last slow climb to Cascade Pass and then ski down to the trailhead.
The window for this tour is April to late June or early July. The Cascade Pass Trailhead is often covered in snow into late June. This area holds an incredible amount of snow into early summer. The gate to this trailhead is usually closed until mid July, so you will likely have to park a few miles back, adding a few miles and a thousand feet of gain to the trailhead. Bringing a bike is highly advisable.
The descent of the S Glacier is pretty steep and has some overhead hazard. It is NE facing, so ripens pretty early. An early start is helpful to make sure this line isn't over-ripened. Ski cautiously, looking for glide cracks and crevasses.
If doing this as a multi day trip, there are plentiful bonus lines: the North Face of Spider, Plan B, Sahale Arm, the north facing lines off Pelton Peak. This is a beautiful zone and will beckon for more exploration.
