from April 8, 2007:
Spring skiing, Lichtenberg Mountain, Stevens Pass backcountry, Washington, April 3, 2007
Lichtenberg Mountain lower
summit, Pt. 5737, from Yodelin | 
Mini-panorama from lower
south ridge of Pt. 5737 | 
Skinning didn't work
when it got steeper | 
Booting up south ridge
toward Pt. 5737 | 
Glacier Peak and cornice
from Pt. 5737 | 
5844 summit of Lichtenberg
Mountain and its south slope | 
Breezy on the lower summit | 
Skinning again at the
saddle between summits | 
Corniced SE ridge leading
to true summit (5844) | 
Corniced ridge
between the summits | 
Nason Ridge: Mount Howard
and Rock Mountain | 
Ben skiing Lichtenberg
Mountain south slopes | 
Ben skiing Lichtenberg
Mountain south slopes | 
Ben skiing Lichtenberg
Mountain south slopes | 
A section of slidey snow | 
Cruising the middle part
of south slope | 
Skiing into the tree zone | 
Oops! |
Photos by Charles Eldridge
| Backcountry skiing trip report:
April 3, 2007, Lichtenberg Mountain spring skiing, Stevens Pass backcountry, Washington
I have wanted to ski Lichtenberg Mountain for a while, but got extra motivated seeing the nice looking coverage on its south slopes two weeks earlier. The forecast remained for sun, but the freezing level kept dropping: 7000 feet two days before, 5000 feet one day before, and 2500 feet the morning of our ski day. But there had been new snow in the previous 36 hours, at cold temperatures. Maybe our sunny corn slopes would actually be sunny powder slopes? It was clear, calm, and cold when Ben (Plinko) and I started out from Yodelin at 8, sliding down the road and across the bridge over Nason Creek, then skinning up the road a bit before heading up through tight trees to get on the curving south ridge leading to the lower (SE) summit (Pt. 5737) of Lichtenberg.
There were several inches of light new snow and grauple over a crust that was firm but not boilerplate. As experienced by others, going up steeply was difficult as the new snow was not well bonded and ascending traverses slid out easily. We ended up booting part of the tight trees to get on the ridge, then skinning, then changing back to booting as it got too steep to skin efficiently. The booting was good most of the time; in a few places all of the new snow had been scoured away, and in others the new snow had drifted in 12 inches deep. In the sun it was already beginning to get a little moist. The wind had picked up as we gained elevation and was blowing small plumes of the new snow when we reached the SE summit of Lichtenberg. We debated where to go from there. Ben had a big trip coming up the next day and didn't want to do a lot of vertical. Neither of us was really excited about skiing the ridge we'd just come up - there would be a lot of quick snow condition changes. On the other hand the south slope of the NW, true, summit of Lichtenberg (5844) looked attractive from our vantage point.
We booted NW down the steeper part of Pt. 5737's ridge, then skinned up to the true summit. (There was one very convenient looking break in the cornice which hung over the whole length of the ridge between the two summits. This break looked like it would provide reasonable access to and from the north (Lichtenwasser Lake area)). The wind was not nearly so strong and we enjoyed a long lunch at the top, then started skiing the fall line to the south. This provided a straight shot 2000 feet down to Nason Creek, staying skier's right of the major avalanche gully. The top few turns had a bit of scraping on crust lacking a coating of new snow, but then the skiing got uniformly good.
Near the top there were 3-4 inches of new snow, sun-moistened on its surface. As we descended the new snow layer got thinner and moister, so that in the bottom 500 feet there was just an inch of new and it was very wet. The snow was never grabby, and the underlying crust was very smooth, so the turns were enjoyable all the way down. There was one section, probably around 5200, where the new snow layer, ~3 inches, predictably slid on the steepest parts, but that was it for avalanche activity. At the bottom we started traversing left a couple hundred feet above Nason Creek, hoping to hit the cabins road (north side of Nason Creek) without any uphill, and we nailed it, even avoiding the "cabin" at the end of the road. Conditions would probably have stayed good for another run, but it was nice to have an easy day of fun skiing and get home at a respectable time (so respectable, in fact, that my wife was sure that something had gone wrong).
Charles |
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