11/21/08 Chinook Pass, Dewey Lake Traverse
11/21/08
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1980
1
I had the day off of work so I decided that before I crossed the P. Sound I'd make a long big detour to chinook pass. The weather reports said it had snowed up to 9 inches so I expected to get a couple of turns in. I got there around 1030, the roads had some slickness to them, but not bad. I started to hike in and found a boarded who had not been there before looking for the same thing. We hiked the trail and chat chitted for a bit while we headed to Dewey Lake. We found some snow about 10 inches deep in places which was great for us so we climbed up above the lake and picked out a good line to descend on. We had to plan it just right because of all the barely exposed rocks that would destroy our gear. After a quick snack we strapped in a dropped in for some fluffy, mini face shots but a lot of noise, ROCKs! I managed to get all the way down without too much damage, he tumbled off some rocks and took a 2x2 inch chunk out of his board! OUCH! I figured that the barely 600ft of vert was enough for me and I wanted to save my skis for another day. So we hiked out and enjoyed a nice cold beer when we got back to the car. It was such a nice day, I got some turns in and I'm glad I took the 60 mile detour for it all before the pass closes for the year!
Good try ! I went up there on Saturday hoping that there was enough coverage but decided there wasn't so bagged it. On the way out I stopped to talk to a couple of Rangers parked at the toilets( Despite my dislike of the NPS policies , I like to talk to to Rangers and find out what's going on.)
There are some areas within the park area at the PAss that offer early season grass/snow turns and they where nearly skiable but the Rangers said they where going to stop anybody they saw trying to ski them as in their opinion there was not enough cover to prevent vegetation damage. They had seemingly had an issue with a couple of snowboarders who had ignored them and damaged some vegetation the previous weekend so they where going to make sure this didn't happen again.
Forewarned I decided that althought the grassy slope looked nearly, almost, but not quite ready, to retreat for another day.
There are some areas within the park area at the PAss that offer early season grass/snow turns and they where nearly skiable but the Rangers said they where going to stop anybody they saw trying to ski them as in their opinion there was not enough cover to prevent vegetation damage. They had seemingly had an issue with a couple of snowboarders who had ignored them and damaged some vegetation the previous weekend so they where going to make sure this didn't happen again.
Forewarned I decided that althought the grassy slope looked nearly, almost, but not quite ready, to retreat for another day.
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