Traver, Southeast Face; McNamee, Southeast Face

A photo of this face on Traver appears in the Clinton section. I skied the southeastface solo on June 2, 2007. On ascent I got involved in too many willows, which were easy to avoid on descent. The trick: As you go up the road from the parking lot, if you can ever turn left into snow, do it. Use skins when you can and you will probably find a continuous snow line on the (climber’s) left side of the valley. Go into the fork heading to Democrat and ascent the easy slopes of Traver. The summit is at 13865 so it takes a while, and offers amazing views of Democrat’s north face.

To the northwest of Traver lies McNamee Peak which has a fine southeast face. On June 1, 2008, Dave Blakeslee, Janet Jacks, and I skied it. While the face is not too exciting, the long valley descent is pretty fun.

Here Dave begins the somewhat slushy descent, caused in part by a late start.