Photo by Chris Starling (Mt Adams, Washington)

This profile was originally featured in our Spring 2023 Trail Break issue.

“What’s important to me when ski touring is a wilderness experience. Through Winter Wildlands Alliance’s efforts, they work to maintain and create those spaces for future generations.”

Jason Hummel has spent decades skiing and exploring the vertical landscapes of Washington State. He has skied all ten non-volcanic peaks over 9,000 feet, pioneering 5 new ski descents and adding to nearly 100 others. He has skied across both east and west sides of the Olympic Mountains, across Washington State from Oregon to Canada (in sections), and circumnavigated four volcanoes—Rainier, Adams, St. Helens, and Glacier Peak—as well as Mount Olympus.

He has curated a list of 300 glaciers throughout Washington that he calls “The Glacier Project.” It includes not just those officially named by the USGS, but also those with unofficial names from guidebooks, old maps, photographic documentation and word of mouth. At last count he had skied “250ish” of them, some of which no longer exist. He has been a primary mover in our recent coalition effort to re-establish sustainable winter recreation access in Mt. Rainier National Park.

Aside from his propensity to drag his friends through tangled rainforest hellscapes, he’s the nicest guy in the PNW.