Overcoat-Lemah Traverse

The Overcoat-Lemah Traverse links two of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness's most remote summits in a long spring ski circuit. The route bikes up the Middle Fork road from the Dingford Creek trailhead, climbs into the Overcoat Peak basin, drops the steep north couloir, traverses the high country to Lemah Mountain, and exits via Pete Lake — about twenty-seven miles total with significant climbing and descent across two long days.

Day one is the work — seven thousand four hundred feet of climbing to set up the Overcoat north couloir descent. The couloir starts steep and tightens through the upper third, with cornice exposure and wet-loose hazard the dominant concerns. Day two crosses to Lemah's southeast side for a mellower couloir descent and the long exit walk to Pete Lake. Cumulative ski descent runs above ten thousand feet across both days.

This is committing terrain in remote country. The route demands current melt-freeze cycles, careful timing on the steep aspects, and route-finding through complex terrain with obvious traps under steep rocky slopes. Plan around weather windows tightly. May is the standard window; earlier risks deeper instability and snowed-in approach roads, later risks bridge collapses and brutal moats.