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 northwest face. This turned out to be a fantastic ski: perfect corn on a long slope at a consistent angle of about 35˚. 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 northwest 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: Northwest Passage in the rear, and Baffin Island in the center, starting from the flat area on the ridgetop.