January 3, 2004, Mt Catherine (5,052')
1/3/04
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2273
0
Day 22
Mount Catherine (5,052')
2,500' vertical skied
No Camera for Mt Catherine, so an eye candy shot of the Slot Couloir, still fresh in our minds...
Following the grandeur of skiing the Slot Couloir, anything else we did seemed like gravy. We wanted to continue exploring Alpental Valley and benefit from the good avy danger. Yet another 6" had fallen overnight and once again the day's canvas was blank. What now to do? Alyson and I had a late afternoon get together with friends so we decided to try a recon mission up the Alpental valley.
Our day's destination was the South Shoulder of Chair peak, so we drove up to the far end of the Alpental parking lots and of course had first dibs on the parking next to the backcountry exit trail, the usual benefit of early rising. Just as we prepared to don skins and skis, a knock on the window startled us and a Ski Patroller was smiling in at us. I rolled the window down and found out that the parking lot was going to be closed for the day so they could land a helicopter. We didn't want to be caught in the middle of a SAR operation so we decided to flee.
We decided that staying away from the Alpental Valley would be a good idea, and I wanted to do something I was familiar with now that Plan A had failed. I told Andrei Mt Catherine might be a good choice, especially the Old Growth forest in this light dry powder. We drove over to Hyak and parked in the snowed in lot 15 minutes later.
This day I was on skis and one of the reasons we chose Mt Catherine was that this tour was tailor made for touring equipment. We skinned up the ski trails which were marvelous corduroy, and stopped once we hit Union Station, the edge of the cross country ski area. It began to snow heavily as we left Union Station and found the open meadows below Mt Catherine had two new inches since the cat drove by earlier in the morning to cut the cross country tracks. Once off the cross country trails we found a buried skin track and quickly worked our way up into the Old Growth forest.
Conditions in the old growth forest were better than expected. We easily climbed the buried skin track yet had three feet of powder to look forward to on the descent. The climb wasn't long and we reached the summit at 10:45 am, a short three hours after leaving the car, and Andrei had his second Cascade peak. We didn't stay long on top, as it was really snowing hard and no views kept us gawking, so we dove into the descent and rode back down the ridge a little ways to my favorite chute.
The chute off the ridge was a narrow 20 foot wide slide path angled at an enticing 40 degrees, short but steep and plenty deep. I gave Andrei first dibs and he enjoyed face shots down to the bottom of the chute, yelping his pleasure as he went. After a few more sections, I blasted through the woods and came to a stop realizing this section of woods had earned the coveted "Best Snow of the Trip" award. On Mt Catherine no less!
The next chute was amazing. We dropped through the Old Growth section and stopped on the edge of the shelf, dropping away down another 40 degree chute to the valley floor a short way away. With my comparatively skinny skis (I didn't have Fat skis yet and my Dynastar Verticals looked like match sticks next to Andrei's Pocket Rockets) the snow skied like bottomless powder. Because of the steepness the snow with each turn would begin to slide with me, creating a building wave of snow down the narrow chute. I didn't want to get caught so I straightened out my skis and charged the steepest section to get ahead of the powder wave. The sensation was nothing short of breaking out of a tube while surfing. I came to a stop after avoiding the trees at the bottom of the chute and Andrei came next, amazed at the deep, steep turns completely untracked.
We emerged at Union Station shortly after and were amused to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a cross country ski race. We skied around the Start/Finish line trying to act like we belonged there, and skied out of the crowds back toward Hyak.
Happily we were able to ski right back to the bumper of our truck, once more all smiles.
(continued on January 4th, the Kendall Stump)
Mount Catherine (5,052')
2,500' vertical skied
No Camera for Mt Catherine, so an eye candy shot of the Slot Couloir, still fresh in our minds...
Following the grandeur of skiing the Slot Couloir, anything else we did seemed like gravy. We wanted to continue exploring Alpental Valley and benefit from the good avy danger. Yet another 6" had fallen overnight and once again the day's canvas was blank. What now to do? Alyson and I had a late afternoon get together with friends so we decided to try a recon mission up the Alpental valley.
Our day's destination was the South Shoulder of Chair peak, so we drove up to the far end of the Alpental parking lots and of course had first dibs on the parking next to the backcountry exit trail, the usual benefit of early rising. Just as we prepared to don skins and skis, a knock on the window startled us and a Ski Patroller was smiling in at us. I rolled the window down and found out that the parking lot was going to be closed for the day so they could land a helicopter. We didn't want to be caught in the middle of a SAR operation so we decided to flee.
We decided that staying away from the Alpental Valley would be a good idea, and I wanted to do something I was familiar with now that Plan A had failed. I told Andrei Mt Catherine might be a good choice, especially the Old Growth forest in this light dry powder. We drove over to Hyak and parked in the snowed in lot 15 minutes later.
This day I was on skis and one of the reasons we chose Mt Catherine was that this tour was tailor made for touring equipment. We skinned up the ski trails which were marvelous corduroy, and stopped once we hit Union Station, the edge of the cross country ski area. It began to snow heavily as we left Union Station and found the open meadows below Mt Catherine had two new inches since the cat drove by earlier in the morning to cut the cross country tracks. Once off the cross country trails we found a buried skin track and quickly worked our way up into the Old Growth forest.
Conditions in the old growth forest were better than expected. We easily climbed the buried skin track yet had three feet of powder to look forward to on the descent. The climb wasn't long and we reached the summit at 10:45 am, a short three hours after leaving the car, and Andrei had his second Cascade peak. We didn't stay long on top, as it was really snowing hard and no views kept us gawking, so we dove into the descent and rode back down the ridge a little ways to my favorite chute.
The chute off the ridge was a narrow 20 foot wide slide path angled at an enticing 40 degrees, short but steep and plenty deep. I gave Andrei first dibs and he enjoyed face shots down to the bottom of the chute, yelping his pleasure as he went. After a few more sections, I blasted through the woods and came to a stop realizing this section of woods had earned the coveted "Best Snow of the Trip" award. On Mt Catherine no less!
The next chute was amazing. We dropped through the Old Growth section and stopped on the edge of the shelf, dropping away down another 40 degree chute to the valley floor a short way away. With my comparatively skinny skis (I didn't have Fat skis yet and my Dynastar Verticals looked like match sticks next to Andrei's Pocket Rockets) the snow skied like bottomless powder. Because of the steepness the snow with each turn would begin to slide with me, creating a building wave of snow down the narrow chute. I didn't want to get caught so I straightened out my skis and charged the steepest section to get ahead of the powder wave. The sensation was nothing short of breaking out of a tube while surfing. I came to a stop after avoiding the trees at the bottom of the chute and Andrei came next, amazed at the deep, steep turns completely untracked.
We emerged at Union Station shortly after and were amused to find ourselves smack dab in the middle of a cross country ski race. We skied around the Start/Finish line trying to act like we belonged there, and skied out of the crowds back toward Hyak.
Happily we were able to ski right back to the bumper of our truck, once more all smiles.
(continued on January 4th, the Kendall Stump)
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