Alpine Scramble - Big Chief Mountain

07:30 am at Stevens Pass Ski Resort, on the east side of Hwy 2 next to the public restrooms.

We will arrange any carpools via email to be able to leave at least one vehicle there and get everyone in the remaining cars, so that, assuming we get Big Chief, the drivers can shuttle to Yodelin Place and return to get their passengers.  

From Yodelin parking area we ascend about 1300', mostly on trail, to the ridge saddle just north of Mt Weird aka Peak 5023, then run the ridge north to Welldigger's Ass, return south on the ridge and ascend Weird. Then continue south on the ridge to Big Chief and glissade the ski slopes to the ski area parking. 

Scrambling Big Chief via the ski slopes has a Technical rating of 2; I expect this route warrants a T3. 

There are plenty of tracks and trip reports for Welldigger's + Weird from Yodelin, and for Big Chief from Stevens, but I haven't found any between Big Chief and Weird. However, per this trip report a snowshoe hiker nearly made it on March 6th. There's a nice photo of their turnaround point, showing that skiers continued; with ice axes and our skill set I expect we'll be able to pull it off. If we encounter obstacles or the snow conditions make things too difficult we can return as we came and forgo Big Chief. Only one way to find out...

I won't require snowshoes or crampons for signup because not everyone may have them, but I'll poll the party about that as it could make a difference in getting to Big Chief. Some of us have extras we could loan out.