Rain: Graupel Gully

Rain Peak is the 13130-foot summit that is opposite Silverthorne Peak and directly to the northwest of Salmon Lake. One can ski right to the summit even in January, and it then offers a 4000-foot descent back to the Willowbrook trailhead down the Salmon Lake and North Willow Creek trails. On May 18–20, 2007, Christian Caslin and Charlie Ziskin camped out near Salmon Lake and skied the gully that drops south-southwest from the summit of Rain down to the tarn above Salmon Lake, where they then found additional quality turns down to the lake itself. They called the line Graupel Gully; it has steepest angle 42˚ and they rate it D8, observing that it is similar to Buffalo’s North Couloir in spots.

While I did make it to the summit on light touring skis, on this day we left skis below the final rock section. Jonathan is carrying four polesWhy is he carrying four poles because I had NNN/BC boots, and so I had to be specially careful on the rocks (Jonathan had classic three-pin boots), and so I passed my poles to him on this stretch.
The summit of Rain is at center, with Graupel Gully being the rightmost line. The rock section to the left of the summit goes to Silverthorne Peak and can be climbed in summer with one 5.1 pitch.