Home > Trip Reports > November 26, 2008, Highway 20, Blue Lake

November 26, 2008, Highway 20, Blue Lake

11/26/08
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Posted by jpslagle on 11/27/08 3:14am
Matt and Whit had to go over to Spokanistan for the Turkey Day weekend, so it became an excellent time to check out Highway 20.  Since I've been looking for a good excuse to take a day off of work, a trip up Highway 20 a perfect idea.  Justin and I met up with Matt & Whit at the Blue Lake trail head about 9:30 am and the temp was a balmy 20 degrees and the skies were clear.  Matt, Whit and I were on skis and my brother, who is up from Palm Springs (nothing like going from 75 degrees to 20 degrees in 12 hours) was on snow shoes with his skis on his back.   There was about 8" of snow at the trail head and the trail was compacted all of the way to Blue Lake, but there were some rocks exposed.  As expected the snow increased in depth to the Lake with probably 15" to 24" at the lake.   After a quick lunch stop at the lake outlet, we skinned southeast towards the far side of the lake.  The lake was completely covered with snow, so we we able to skin on the ice covered shore line and stayed within 2' to 4' of the shore.   On the far side of the lake we settled on a north facing couloir.  We ski skinned up until it became too steep, so we threw the skis on our back and headed skyward.  The only bad part of the day happened when my brother could not get his ski boots on and do any skiing with us.  We are not sure exactly what happened to the boots, but we think it is because he left them in the trunk of his car buckled down during a portion of the summer when it was about 120 degrees out.   Not a great first bc ski trip for him.  A quick pit test revealed about 30" of snow and the layers became firmer with depth.  The couloir had a crust layer at a variable depth making it an unpredictable but still fun ski down.  Once back across the lake, Matt and I tried to find a short cut down.  We spent about 45 minutes floundering through thick underbrush with about 12" of snow.  After a conversation deciding if we were lost or not, we slowly traversed and picked up the trail.  Matt said it was skill and i still think it was luck that we found the trail.  Unscathed we booted back down the trail and met up with Whit and Justin.  Back at the cars we parted ways for our separate designations.  An absolutely fantastic day had by all.  Sorry not many pics.  Hopefully matt can add some later. 

How very timely of you to post this report- thanks for the update! I have been watching the telemetry for quite awhile now and think the time is becoming right for a ski up to the blue lake col near early winters spire. As always, that lower portion is pretty dense and can cause some route-finding problems. Did you by any chance see the col and did the snow seem to be a sufficient depth for non rock skiing? We went last year quite  a bit earlier, but with much more snow having recently fallen, and still had some rock issues... Planning a possible trip out so would appreciate any more snow info for the area above/ around where you all skied.

Thanks in advance.

Chris

The couloir was sufficiently covered.  I don't think any of us hit any rocks.  The only problem is that underlying crust made the depth of the dry sugary snow vary from 6" to 12"+.  We were at least knee deep booting up.  I included a clipped map from google maps that shows where i think we skied.  (i know the picture should be a thumbnail, but i only had one in the original post....i hope that is okay).  I'll call matt and see if he can chime in with some better info and maybe some links to some pics that will help.

thanks for taking the time to do this, it will help when selecting a route in the coming days. More pics the merrier.

Thanks and may it snow hard and soon,

Chris

way to get after it, slages.
stevo saw you driving down 20 on his way to work and was wondering why you didnt call him.

glad you had fun.

where did you get those unreal topsheets on your skis? very cool! ;D

We were up there yesterday and had snow falling most of the morning.  Some good fresh powder on an alternating crusty base and then breaking thru.  All in all there were some rocks - at least I found one or two but not bad considering.  We headed towards blue lake col and did several nice runs. 
We also did some nice skiing up the Cuthroat Lake trail, though there are more rocks exposed currently it was some good skiing!

author=Tokogirl link=topic=11330.msg47044#msg47044 date=1227976983]
We were up there yesterday and had snow falling most of the morning. 


Probably you guys we saw as we drove past throwing on your skins.

Yep, could have been us. 
Wish I would have had a camera for some pics - oh well!

We hit the north couloir off Blue lake with pics.  Posting TR soon.

Can't wait to see them!

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november-26-2008-highway-20-blue-lake
jpslagle
2008-11-27 11:14:21