Heather Ridge Ski - 01.09.11

Dan and I tried to go out earlier in the week, but he realized he was going to return from Colorado too late to be able to head out the next day. We rescheduled for Sunday in the hopes of better snow to ski.

We read the reports and the telemetry and it wasn't too promising. Shallow powder on top of the rain crust was what we were seeing. Dan was skeptical. Stevens Pass ski area reported only two inches of snow on Saturday. But the telemetry was showing at least 6" when we talked, and that was for highway level (4000'.) I told him we should give it a go. So we planned to get to the parking lot at 8am to beat the resort opening at 9am.

It was 24°F and there were plenty of cars in the lot when we arrived, but most were for the resort. We passed a bunch of people putting on skins in the lot as we made our way to the trail. When we got there, there was a faint skin track from one person, and a couple of guys with a loose dog booting up the trail. I made quick time to pass them, and then tried to settle in to a slower pace. Dan told me he he wasn't sure he could keep pace with me, but I seriously tried to keep the pace sane. The going up the road was easy as it was packed down from yesterday's skiers. A few times the guy in front of us took short cuts, and a few times we followed. We caught him just before reaching Skyline Lake where we chatted with a couple who had spent the night up there. It took us 40 minutes to reach the lake. We heard the other skier mention he was headed to the other side of the lake to wake up his friend who spent the night.

Dan and I crossed the lake and headed up the other side. We had a few navigational issues, but finally found ourselves on the saddle looking at chute to descend. The snow had been getting deeper as we got higher and we were now standing in a fair amount of powder on top of the crust from this weeks rain. There were no signs of instability and I let Dan take the first run as I thought there might be a cliff or something in the chute. There wasn't and soon we were navigating our way through the trees to a more level area in the valley. The run started as nice powder, but on stronger turns and lower down the crust was encountered. It would throw you off a bit but nothing significant.

At the top of the run we eyed the open upper slopes of Tye Peak. When we finished our first run we attempted to find a skin track from Saturday that lead over in that direction. We did, and soon we were making our own track up the side of the mountain. Dan took over as we gained the ridge and crossed through a section of hard wind packed snow to our top out point, a patch of trees. This run was great with nice powder for most of the run with a few spots where we hit crust lower down. It was 11:30am, and we decided to have lunch before taking another run down Tye Peak.

Now that we had our track in, the skin up went even quicker. We opted to stop a little lower as we wanted a run further to skier's right and going up to the top of our first run would put us too far left. We transitioned as a lone skier passed us thanking us for the skin track. Then we had another great powder run down to the meadow before transitioning to skinning again.

Unfortunately we couldn't find a good up track and put one in ourselves for a bit. (More of a rising traverse actually.) This didn't go smoothly until we finally got under the boulder field and near our first run tracks. Then we located a skin track and followed it back to the saddle. A skin on run down to the lake and a skin back across the lake brought us to our last transition. We made quick time down the luge run and cut out down the open slopes a bit before returning to the road to speed out. Plenty of moving obstacles coming up and down the trail to avoid. We made it back to the car before 2pm to head back to Seattle.

Dan said this was his best day out this season and was really happy I convinced him to go. The runs were great, and we had first runs off the backside of the ridge, allowing us first turns on Tye Peak as well. By the time we were headed out Heather Ridge was fairly tracked out, with a few good pockets remaining.

My pics are here.

Yodelin - 01.29.10

Dan asked if I wanted to go out because they were forcing him to take the day off on Friday. He was leaving for Colorado on Saturday and I suspect he was hoping to get in some January turns.

It hadn't snowed all week so expectations were low. We decided on Yodelin as the trees would protect it from a sun crust, and temps were below freezing all week hopefully maintaining the snow that fell on Monday. The night before we decided if the snow was bad we would return home after one run.

Driving up to Steven's Pass we got a good first hand view of the lack of low snow. Surprisingly the ice on the side of the highway didn't look all bad near the pass. A few miles after and we were parking. The car's outside temp gauge read 33°F. We geared up and headed off. The skin in is on an old road that switchbacks through the old ski area. There was a faint skin track from Sunday or Monday, so we followed it. Dan and I constantly poked our poles in the snow outside the disturbed area and we were liking what we found. Soft powdery snow on top. We wound up a little farther west than the area Dan usually goes to and we made a traverse to a saddle and then up a ridge into the trees to where we started our first run.

The run started out with tightly spaced large trees and a few smaller (just sticking out of the ground) ones interspersed. Dan sailed away and I was left making one or two turns before stopping and figuring out my next move. It was slow going early on and then the trees cleared out a bit and we got moving. The snow was very good and we opted to go again, so at the end of our ~800' run, we skinned back up to the ridge.

This time I recommended a path farther skier's right as it appeared more open. We passed our previous drop in and continued a few moments east to where there was a nice opening to start. We entered the woods just after the small clearing and had a fantastic run! Really good snow and good turns through big trees. Once at the bottom we discussed what to do next. We both decided to give it another go although we were both tiring of the skin back up.

On the way back up Dan noted that the weather was great too, except for lack of sun. I told him the sun would cause a crust, and we couldn't have better conditions. I lagged behind Dan on the way up really feeling the soreness of climbing and yard work the previous day. I got to our transition and quickly changed over. We rode down again, but this run was not as good for me. The tiredness affected my ski ability and it seemed that the snow quality was deteriorating. (It felt like after a cold morning, the temps were indeed rising.) It had started to snow lightly when we started our second run.

After a few crashes on the way down including a heinous face plant that Dan got to witness, we transitioned to skinning and traversed west to get out. We initially considered heading up slightly to get a better run out, but we were both tired and tried to make a traverse work. After a entering the woods, we decided we could probably go for it and transitioned back into downhill mode. This was after I dug myself out of a hole I fell in trying to ski between two small trees with my skins on. The snow was getting wetter and stickier as we were lower and we rode out to a clearing where there was an old lift house. Dan opted to take his board off and hike up a small knoll while I trudged through the meadow to the other side. Once there, we hit our trail up and had enough angle to successfully use gravity.

The way out was tricky as the "road" was narrow and the snow very uneven. I tried multiple techniques of snowplowing, multiple hard turns, or skiing into the slope to maintain a good speed. At one point I fell and then picked up and skied out to Dan waiting at the car.

We got out before the rain arrived. (I'm not sure if it did arrive actually.) The turns were great and it was fun to explore a new area to me. I really needed a day in the backcountry after I found lift serve to be lacking.

My pics are here.

Paradise Ski - 11.18.09

After failing to connect on Saturday, Dan and I got out to go skiing today. Unlike our plan from the weekend to go close and short by heading to Steven's Pass, this time we headed south to Mt. Rainier where avalanche danger was predicted to be lower than further north. On the way down we came up with a plan to ride the Mazama Ridge area. Mostly because neither of us had, and with the weather forecast, neither of us really wanted to skin up to the snowfield to get turns especially because higher winds were predicted.

We arrived at Longmire to find the gate closed and it was not set to open for another 90 minutes. We lounged around the inn for a while and then decided to get something to eat in the restaurant to pass the time. Even after breakfast, we still had 25 minutes to go before the gate opened. We read some magazines, and then it was 10am, and the gate opened right on time. Unfortunately, we headed down to the park with the thought of a 8am opening time. This was based on the information that the road opens at 8am if there is six inches or less of snowfall the previous night. According to the weather telemetry, Paradise saw around 6" of snow that night. But I guess the telemetry was wrong, because the gate opened at 10am and when we arrived in Paradise, I'd say there were at least 8" of new snow.

So when we finally arrived in the upper parking lot we were the second car there. We opted to skin out Valley Road. This would mean actually going back uphill slightly at the end of the day, but would be an easy skin in to where we wanted to head. We left the road just before Myrtle Falls and headed up into the slopes north of the road. We skinned up to the Skyline Trail and used it to cross a creek that was not well snow covered. We then left the trail and headed uphill again. This is when the sun came out. (Something we were not expecting.) This is also where we started noticing some wind affected snow. There were sections where there was little more than 2" of fresh on a hard base, while other areas had over a foot of deposited snow. The wind was blowing a little more the higher we went, but we wanted to top this slope to get an idea of what was above it.

At the top of the slope, the terrain leveled out for a bit. Mt. Rainier was out of the clouds and we made the decision to transition there as we would have to traverse flats a bit before reaching steeper terrain, that may not have had as good of snow. Our transition spot was quite windy, and we were sure the wind was worse higher up. So we transitioned and headed down. My first set of turns were good on powdery snow. I made a bunch of turns and then signaled for Dan to head down. He stopped at my location and then headed through some short trees to a stopping point. He signaled me to follow, and I immediately fell when transitioning from firmer windswept snow into a depression with deep powder. It took me a while to get up as my legs were crossed. After that embarrassment, I skied down to Dan and we both headed down to the trail.

We skinned back up our skin track and opted to descend a little further east where the terrain looked good. Once we left our initial transition spot, we experienced much more wind affected snow. There were sections of hard snow with no powder on top and we were starting to see sections with a wind crust as well. Once at the top we headed down. The conditions were not as nice as we saw on our first run with a breakable crust and sections of hard snow. After coming down a bunch of turns we decided to make this our last run and head out to the road. Closer to the trail and road, the snow was better and less wind affected, but the lower angle didn't warrant trying to do another lap. So we reached the road, and skinned back out.

Overall it was nice to get out. I had a terrible time skiing the conditions on the second run, and was slow and fell because of it. This made the decision easy not to do another lap as we felt assured we would run into those variable conditions again. While the Paradise area has the most reliable snow pack for winter enthusiasts, it is just too exposed and rarely offers up ideal conditions for skiing in the winter. Also, the road opening at 10am really put a limit on what we would be able to do. It eliminated a trip up to Camp Muir, although neither Dan or I were interested in that objective anyway. Dan and I vowed to head somewhere else the next chance we get.

My pics are here.

Mount Adams - SW Chutes - 06.27.09

Elevation Gain: 6800'
12 miles RT
Left car: 4:30 am
Summit: 12:30 pm
Back at car: 4 pm
11.5 hours car to car

I had one weekend available before going to France, and I asked Jennifer if I could go skiing. She said yes, and I talked to Dan about a summit attempt on Mount Adams. He invited Chris along, and we had our trip. The goal would be to climb the South Route, and either descend the climbing route or the Southwest Chutes. We would make the decision once there to see what coverage was like.

We left Seattle a little after Noon on Friday and took the long way down. (Is there a short way to Mount Adams from Seattle?) We drove down to Portland and then east on I84 to Hood River before crossing the Columbia again and heading up to the mountain. On the way down we discussed how many people we thought we'd see. This question was starting to be answered when we stopped to get our permits. There were 3 other cars there with about 3 people in each, all getting permits to climb. When we arrived at the campground, we found it full with cars. There had to be over 100 cars! We had difficulty finding a spot, and then parked and got ready to sleep.

Sleeping was next to impossible. Cars rolled in all through the night trying to find a spot. A loud Vanagon pulled up and proceeded to be restarted a few times while the owners were attempting to park it level to sleep in. At one point, well after 1 am a car rolled in blasting their stereo. ("Danger Zone" by Kenny Loggins) This could be heard with their doors and windows closed.

Our wake up time of 3:30 am rolled around and we started to motivate. We were finally moving by 4:30 and headed up the trail. There were plenty of others already hiking as well. Since there was no snow in the parking lot, we were booting from the start. Dan choose to wear hiking boots, while I wore my ski boots and Chris his snowboard boots. It took about 500' vertical before we met snow. It was not continuous, and quite hard, with plenty of boot tracks, so we kept on booting up.

Chris wasn't feeling well so we were not making great time, but not bad either. About 900' vertical and hour was our pace early on. We made a stop around 9000' where Chris took some Ibuprofen and put his split board on his pack as an A-Frame to better stabilize the load. The Chris. Once we passed the "lunch counter" (a large flat area with good high camps) we kept looking back, but could not make him out from the hundreds of people on the mountain. Around 10000' Dan and I stopped at a rock island to see if we could see him. He was just past the lunch counter and we presumed he would take at least a half hour to get to our location. From our previous discussion, we knew Chris was not there to summit, and Dan and I made the decision to head for the summit and meet Chris at Piker's Peak (the false summit) and the entrance to the Southwest Chutes.

Dan and I continued on. I was really affected by the altitude and was not feeling great. I slowed a bit right before the false summit. Once there, I was really not feeling great and took a brief break. Dan and I checked out the SW Chutes and saw a few skiers drop in. We didn't like the icy sounds we heard from their skis and thought we might be better descending the climbing route. After some discussion, Dan and I decided to drop our packs, put on crampons and make the final 600' push to the summit. Dan lost me almost immediately. It felt like I was dragging an anvil up the last steep section to the summit plateau. I had all of the symptoms of AMS: headache, dizziness, nausea. Dan reached the summit 15 minutes before I did. Once there, I snapped a few pics, and we headed down to meet Chris.

Back at Piker's Peak we talked about the descent. I took an Ibuprofen and we geared up. The wind had picked up and we all put on our poofy jackets. The decision was made to descend the chutes as they had softened up in the time that Dan and I went to the summit. I was still a bit dizzy, but knew that descending was the only cure and I told the guys I was going to take it easy at first. I headed over to the chutes before them and made my first turns.

The snow was fantastic! To use the skier's cliche it was sweet buttery corn. Almost immediately I felt better! Was it the skiing? Was it the drop in altitude? Who knows? I was having the greatest ski run of my life! Dan and Chris hopped over a rock band to descend the next chute to skier's right. I saw what looked like a lot of rock where they were going and stayed in the main chute. There was a mess of other skiers and boarders in the main chute, and there were occasional rest periods to wait for others to clear the next section of the run. This was fine with me as it gave me an opportunity to rest a bit and to snap a few pics. At one point, someone kicked a rock down the chute, but I think everyone avoided it safely.

The bottom of the chute I took got narrow and steep with a rocky snow finish. I needed to make a few quick turns and then ski out to the right to join Dan and Chris. Once on flatter terrain I finally got to remove my jackets and gloves for the rest of the ski out. The next section below the chutes is what we called "the mine field." There were rocks all over the snow. Most about the size of a softball. They had all melted into the snow to some degree with some creating large holes that you had to jump over or turn quickly around because they were not obvious until you were on top of them.

After the mine field, there was a short steeper mogul slope. It was probably the trickiest section to ski as the moguls were icy hard and had steep sides. The best you could do was follow other's tracks before you and add a little side slipping in. Dan, Chris and I continued to follow another party out who had great knowledge of the route. We were able to ski for quite some distance. There was a brief rock step that I had to come out for and then a little more skiing for me. Then the snow was too patchy and the trees too tight for me to continue safely without damaging my equipment. I de-skied and continued to walk down. Dan and Chris stayed in and managed to ride to the 6300' level. Which gave us all around 5000' of vertical ski run.

Once at the 6300' level we were at the "round the mountain" trail. From there it is was a matter of traversing back to the climbing trail and heading back to the car. Dan and Chris switched into hiking boots/shoes and I continued in my ski boots. We arrived back at the car parched and chugged some water and prepared to leave.

On the way out, we saw a sign that said: "Big Tree, 1/4 mile." So we went. Wow! The largest Ponderosa Pine I have ever seen. The pic tells the stats, as does Dan and Chris standing under it. Quite a sight and worth stopping for before or after a climb of Adams.

Overall it was a great trip. We hit the route perfect both for time of day and season. The snow was perfect for the ride down and the chutes were a great descent. This was Chris' second time doing the route, and he felt the next time he would do the whole hike in hiking boots and bring a full board as both times he has done this trip neither involved skinning. Skinning was possible, and probably at times made for a quicker ascent, but the snow was icy, and it never seemed to make great sense to switch over. Many people who where skinning up were using ski crampons, and none of us even own them. Chris also said he wouldn't bring an ice ax or crampons. I'd probably bring the ax, or at least a Whippet. The hiking was mellow and there were a few steeper sections of the hike, but nothing over 30°. The boot path is well beaten in, and if it wasn't, crampons may have been nice, but not necessary.

This mountain also has a remarkable amount of people on it. We were guessing there were around 300 people climbing the South Route yesterday, but it is hard to tell. (My one pic of the snowfield shows around 70 people on it.) The crowds are unpleasant, and run the gamut of the goat rodeo. People with polypro under shorts with axes and crampons to guys with jean and army boots with no back packs. Quite a crowd. I guess it makes sense being a non-technical climb of the state's second tallest mountain. But the crowds were not fun, and it is not likely I'd want to go again unless I could go mid week.

This trip marks another goal completed that I wanted to achieve this year. (Ski of Mt. Adams.) It also once again proves that skiing rules for these long snowy descents. It also makes me turn the corner on the possible five Washington Volcanoes in one year. I only have to summit Mount Baker and Glacier Peak to make that possible. (What have I got myself into?)

My pics are here.
Dan's pics are here.
Chris' pics here.

Mt. Pilchuck Ski - 06.05.09

Elevation Gain: 2324'
4 miles RT
Left car: 8:20am
Summit: Approx. 11am
Returned to car: 1:20pm
5 hours car to car

Eight consecutive months skiing! (Dan pointed out that was pretty good considering I had only been skiing 18 months.)

Dan was being forced to take a day off from work this week due to lack of work, or the economy. So we had planned earlier in the week to ski Mt. Pilchuck on Wednesday. But it turned out Dan had to get some work done and we postponed to Friday.

With the high temps, we weren't sure what to expect about snow firmness. When we arrived in the parking lot, nothing was left of the measured 5' of snow that the forest service stated was in the parking lot two weeks ago. (I guess two weeks of >70° temps will do that. Heck it was 89°F at our house in Seattle earlier this week.)

With the warm temps we decided it was safe to leave the crampons in the car. We started boot packing up the trail and continued to do so even when we met continuous snow. At some point it may have made sense to start skinning, but both of us felt that the boot packing was going well. This would also save us from having to get our skins wet. The hike up was uneventful, except for the cloud we were hiking in. Then, we waited a bit and the summit came into view. We did an end run east around a cliff band below the summit ridge and then came back west to gain the saddle between Mt. Pilchuck and Little Pilchuck. (Another party coming up as we descended said they tried the direct route and found it sketchy.) Once under the saddle, I left my skis at the base and we pulled out ice axes for the final steep bit to the ridge.

We then had a hard time trying to stay on snow and not fall in moats to get to the lookout. The last rock scramble was especially hard in ski/snowboard boots, and it seemed like we spent as much time on the summit ridge as we did getting to it. We went inside the lookout, took our boots off and hung out. We were the only ones there. We ate lunch and read the signs and dried out gear a bit. Then we headed down. Just off the rocks we met a lone skier and then three guys bare booting. We got back to the saddle and I plunged stepped down to my skis while Dan geared up to board that section. We then traversed a bit east where I finally strapped on my skis.

The snow was OK for skiing. The sun cups were big and bumpy, but not so much that it was difficult. The corn on top was a bit sticky, but was not deep sloppy mush like it may have been earlier in the week, or last week. We stitched together some turns then descended into the clouds where we had to pick our route through trees etc. while trying to follow our boot pack from the morning. We finally de-skied about 700' above the parking lot. There was skiable snow below that point, but with the lower angle terrain and Dan on a split board, it didn't seem warranted to put skis back on.

Overall a nice easy experience on skis which makes me want to get out and do more spring skiing. I had a nice learning experience with ski boots and scrambling. To which I realized it may make more sense to have the boots buckled all the way. (I only had the two arch buckles done.)

My pics are here.
Dan's are here.

Snoqualmie Pass Backcountry - 03.06.09

With a big dump (16") of new snow and Dan having the day off from a canceled trip to BC, we decided to explore some terrain at Snoqualmie Pass. It would mark my fifth consecutive month of skiing, while probably marking Dan's sixth consecutive month of boarding. (He believes that September was the only month he didn't get out in 2008.)

Since I knew the area a little better, and Dan wanted to get to know it we headed in the direction of Source Lake from the Alpental parking lot. With a bluebird day following a big dump, there must have been a statewide powder alert, because slackcountry skiers were already heading down the backcountry before the lifts started running at 9am. Dan and I made quick work of the traverse, and made a decision at Source Lake to head up into the hanging valley near The Tooth. Another backcountry skier had already made a lap above Source Lake and was starting another.

Skinning up to the hanging valley was hard work. The snow was deep and the slope steep. The other skier caught us on the way up, and offered to blaze trail for the last 20 vertical feet to the valley. We parted ways, and he asked if we minded him poaching first tracks. We told him we were headed to the top of the valley and to go ahead. We skinned up to the saddle at the head of the valley and started a transition. We noticed some avalanche crowns in the valley from earlier in the week and decided to dig a pit, just to inspect the snow pack. The forecast was moderate for under 5000', and we did not notice any instability in the snow pack skinning up. We did witness some snow slough off a steeper section of rock in the sun.

Since none of the slackcountry skiers had hit the saddle yet, it appeared we would get first tracks. As we thought that, a skier who was able to hit the lower valley with lift assistance, put on some skins and headed our way. He arrived as Dan was digging the pit. He thanked us for the skin track, and then inconsiderately proceeded to get first tracks on the slope. Dan wished for his demise. We proceeded downslope behind him with me going first, so Dan could take some photos. My experience with the knee deep powder was greatly different than a week earlier, and I had a few crashes on my first run.

We made a short run and proceeded to skin back up for another. The snow was deep and powdery. The other skier managed to beat us up to the top and take another run before we could. Just before I took my second run, some other skiers arrived bare booting it from the lift in waist deep snow. After a few more crashes, Dan and I decided to head to somewhere where the lift served crowd couldn't reach. We headed out of the hanging valley.

We arrived back above Source Lake where the sun was shining. Our assessment of conditions was that the sun sheltered snow was lighter and better for skiing as the snow in the sun was getting wetter and heavier. We decided to skin up to Snow Lake to see what the north facing slopes had to offer there. There was already a skin track laid out, but no one took the opportunity to ski down to the lake. We had first turns in a really nice loosely treed run down to the lake. (It would have been better if we didn't have to keep stopping to make sure it was not going to cliff out.) The run was short (around 300'+) but enjoyable. We created a skin track back up to climbers left where there was more open terrain. We were hoping for multiple runs down, but by the time we made our second nice run down toward the lake, it was 3:30pm and time to start heading back.

On the skin up, we wound up closer to the summer trail, and this caused us a longer traverse over to the slopes above Source Lake. Snow on the ridge was wind blown and crusty. Upon arriving back above Source Lake, we deskinned, and proceeded down. The snow that had been in the sun for a good part of the day was now shadowed, and had a horrible 1" breakable crust. It was the worst ski conditions I have skied. It was difficult to ski, and was very stressful on the leg muscles and joints.

We found a final stash of more powdery snow further to the south above Source Lake. We ran down that and rode out the skin traverse back to the parking lot.

Overall it was a great day. The weather was fantastic, bluebird. The snow was great on the right aspects as well. We didn't like the slackcountry crowds, but were able to avoid them. There is more terrain up there that we have yet to explore as well.

My pics are here.
Dan's pics are here.

Paradise Skiing - 01.18.09

(Almost) Spring skiing in January.

With the recent inversion, spring like ski conditions were being found at higher elevations while Seattle temps hovered around freezing. With the help of mostly south facing slopes, we headed to Paradise to check out the scene. Our first mistake for this trip was probably heading out too early. We left Seattle around 6am, and we were under way up the slopes around 8:45.

The snow was frozen and icy. Very icy in spots. The road to Paradise was closed for a few weeks, and we could see tracks from the previous two days. The snow will get softer we kept telling ourselves.

Without crampons for our skis or feet, we had to be careful in places. This meant boot packing up Pan Point. It was very icy, and we had to use available steps as kicking with my plastic ski boot was only making a 3/4" indent. After booting a bit above Pan Point, we decided it was once again safe to start skinning again. This decision proved incorrect, as we both lost our edges at different locations, and fell on the ice. My fall had more drastic consequences as I was trying to transition back into boots, and had both my skis go for a ride down hill. (I now know in sketchy conditions to keep the leashes attached until I am out of my skis.)

After my fall, Dan and I discussed our options. Snow was still too hard and icy to make a safe decent. Above where we were at, the snow was more wind affected and didn't look as fun to ski. So going higher didn't seem to make much sense either. Especially if the snow does not soften too much. We decided to continue to 8000' and stop. We had lunch and waited for the snow to soften while watching the ever present train of ants climbing up the snowfield. Those people had the right idea though. Starting later to have softer snow.

Once we decided the snow was soft enough, we started to head down. The first turns were alright. Then we crossed the icy area above Pan Point were we previously fell. We boot packed a bit through the rocks and then opted to ski a bowl on the eastern side of Pan Point. The bowl was some of the best turns of the day. Nice corn snow, mostly smooth surfaces, and fun contours.

This is where things went down hill. (Literally, and figuratively.) Dan took a steep gully down to the next basin. It was beyond my ability to ski, so I decided to try and boot it down. However, with the ever present wind, the sails (skis) on my pack made balance difficult. I still felt too sketched to attempt this narrow gully with rocks on foot. So I put my skis back on and attempted to find the blue or green way down. I met up with another couple who were having the same dilemma. I ended up skiing ever gentler slopes as I could not find a path down that looked comfortable to ski or boot.

At some point, I got on a well used snow shoe trail. Figuring this was the "way out" I followed it. A bit later, I met up with a family on Nordic skis. They informed me I was on the Mazama trail, and that I should head back up. However, I knew that heading down placed me on the Reflection Lakes Road. A combination of skiing and booting got me down to the road, and I skinned back up to Paradise.

During our separation, Dan had gone back to the car and waited for me. Then reported me lost to the ranger. It took me nearly two hours longer to get back to the car than it did for Dan. (Including a 45 minute skin up the road.) When I arrived back in the lot we informed the ranger that I was "found" and left for home. I think we both learned something about party separation. I also realized that going up early would have made more sense than what I did. The end result was me being a bit dehydrated and getting some nasty blisters. While Dan was getting a scare about my whereabouts and condition. Unfortunately, we had no means of communication, as neither of us had cell signal. Not even in the parking lot.

My pics are here.
Dan's pics are here.

Kendall Knob - 12.31.08

Dan and I headed out to the Kendall Knob/clear cut area for some quick backcountry turns this morning. It turns out we didn't stay long.

What I have been learning is you need speed to easily execute turns in deep powder. I managed to do that last week at Hyak. However, trees were added to the equation today, and this made it more difficult to want to go fast. It is all a learning curve. On a positive note, I did not hit any trees. I did crash hard when catching a ski on buried alder.

Dan and I found the snow to be deep. Skinning was tiring. It snowed and the wind blew the whole time we were out. Dan had difficulty extricating himself a few times. I had difficulty with the one crash. A little more snow coverage would have made things somewhat easier.

We dug a snow pit at our high point to investigate the snow pack. Mostly soft snow for the top 30". We did a tap test and were able to have a 4" top slide with wrist taps on a fairly low angle slope. (~25° heavily treed) Often we heard the Alpental ski patrol bombing the slopes. (It was sort of scary.)

We made one run through the trees, and called it quits. By the time we left, I90 Eastbound was closed.

Dan breaking trail through trees

The view before conditions deteriorated.

Silver Basin - 12.14.08

With a cold snap in effect, and recent heavy snowfall, Dan, Chris and I headed to Crystal Mountain to access some backcountry snow.

We left Seattle around 6am with a temp around 28°. The web told us that it was currently 1° in the Crystal Mountain parking lot. We hoped the temp would rise. The drive out was long due to snowy roads from Seattle all the way to the ski area. It was still in single digits as we left the parking lot to go ski. Ski patrol told us there were a few sloughs on Saturday, but avy danger was low. They also told us that there was zero chance of precip (which directly conflicted with the 50% change the NWS forecast.) It ended up snowing a bit while we were out, and the temp was still only 8° when we returned to the car.

The skin in is fairly easy and uneventful. We skinned under the Quicksilver chair at the ski area, then you go through the woods and over the lake to the Basin. (Not grandmother's house.) The upper basin looked really steep from below, but after skiing it, I would say it was a mild black diamond run.

We made a decision on our first runs not to skin to the top and ski the main/middle portion of the bowl. We instead traversed out to skier's left and had a run down there. Turning in the deep powder was difficult for me. And I really had to stay pointed downhill if I wanted to keep moving as the snow was slow. My first run was uneventful and made me feel good that I didn't fall, but no so great, as I wasn't having an easy time with the conditions.

Dan and Chris agreed that the first run was a bit short and wanted to reach the top of the ridge for the second run. I agreed, although I knew it would be just more distance I may be struggling to ski down. Skinning up to the top seemed more tiring, even though it was not that much further. Perhaps it was all the time we spent outside in single digit (negative?) temps? On the way to the top, there were 11 people ahead of us. (The Silver Basin probably saw 30+ skiers/boarder on Sunday.) We thought there might be competition for lines and crowding. However, in the last 50' of vertical to the ridge, there were 30mph sustained winds. No longer was the condition light powder, but wind blown and crusty. Dan reached the ridge first and tried to hide in the trees from the wind. I arrived and started my transition. When Chris arrived Dan took off to make room for him. I waited until Chris was mostly transitioned and I headed down. The first few turns on the windblown were predictable and decent. Below that the slope transitioned back into deep powder where I fell a few times. I met up with the guys and we decided that going back to the car was a good idea. (It also appeared that most of the others who came out to the basin felt that way as the crowds disappeared after our second run. We then skied out and back to the car.

Unfortunately for me, this was a reminder of how difficult it is for me to ski backcountry powder. I am definitely getting better at it, but it is not easy for me. I feel that next time I need to be a bit more aggressive and I will ski better.

My limited pics are here.
Dan's trip report on Turns All Year.

Mt. Hood - 11.29.08

Sometimes the weather does not cooperate.

This is my first non-trip report. Julie, Dan and I had planned to ski/board Mount Hood. For Julie and I it would be more of a ski learning experience. I'm pretty sure Dan would have no problems with the sliding part. The goal was to skin to the Hogsback, foot it up to the summit and ski down to the parking lot. Forecasts for Hood for Saturday started out fantastic. (0% chance of precip, "Sunny") By the time we were about to leave for Hood, the forecast had taken a bit of a turn, but not enough to discourage going. (It had been changed to partly cloudy with no precip.)

When we arrived in the parking lot for Timberline Lodge, it was 37° and raining. I assumed it would pass as it was supposed to rain/snow a bit Friday. However, as we woke up late on summit day, it was still 37° and cold rain was still falling. Dan and I packed up the tent and we all jumped in the car to leave.

This was an interesting attempt and it shows that weather forecasting is not an exact science. Best I can tell, the system that was supposed to pass through Friday, came late and was not done passing through when we left Saturday morning. The rain was definitely melting snow at the 6000' level, and may have been falling as heavy wet snow higher up. But, visibility was very low, and we would have had to mostly hike up to snow from the parking lot. Not ideal. When is the snow pack going to be good?

Heliotrope Ridge - 11.23.08

Dan and I decided to earn our turns at Heliotrope Ridge on Sunday. Trip Reports all week were coming back in decent favor of the Heliotrope Ridge area. Since the area received new snow since the trip reports, we figured it would be in great condition.

We arrived in the brisk 32° parking lot around 8:30am. The only issue we could complain about was the lack of coverage. There is not enough snow in the woods to skin. (Although it appears some people tried.) This involved hiking in my randonee boots and Dan in his board boots. Once above tree line, the snow coverage was not too great, but we started skinning anyway. Winds were high and we even considered turning around. I lobbied to see what was over the rise. After all, the seven people in front of us did not turn around. When we got up to the upper slopes, we were reminded why we came. Two skiers were making first tracks from a high point on the ridge as we followed the skin track up.

We got the the top, and went to the high point on the ridge. Then it time for turns. Dan went first off of two steeper lips and stopped to take pics of me skiing down. Off the second lip, I fell. Although mostly just laid down into the slope. Got up and made some nice turns to Dan's location. The snow was soft and my skis penetrated it by 3-5". We took turns riding down to take photos of each other. Once about halfway down the slope, we returned to the skin track to have lunch. It was about 12:30pm.

After lunch we skinned back up to a high point further east on the ridge and decided to take a line down a mostly untracked convex hill. We reached the top, and once again hiked to the summit of a small pinnacle before removing skins and riding down. This run was top notch and super fun. We skied to the bottom of the main hill and decided to make an attempt at riding out as far as possible.

Things went fairly well on the way out, but I hit a thin patch and after hearing three "clicks" I decided to stop. The snow got fat again immediately after I removed my skies, but the boot hiking I did afforded me the opportunity to stumble onto a gathering of ptarmigans in full Winter plumage. I finally reached Dan, and we hiked out. We arrived at the car at 3:30pm after leaving it at 9am in the morning.

Overall, the weather was great (except for the 30mph gusts at times.) Dan and I and the two dozen others up there were all in great spirits and you couldn't stop hearing people saying things like "you cannot ruin this day." It was a fantastic way to break into the ski season.

Dan's pics are here.

My pics are here.