January 25, 2004, Arrowhead

On early Sunday morning Charles, Russ, Matt and I headed out for Arrowhead on the eastern side of Stevens Pass. As we were getting ready more skiing parties arrived. We followed the logging road to the very end skiining up in at least 4 inches of fresh powder. Underneath was last weekends crust but not as icy and slippery as expected. We broke trail crossing an clear cut into the forest. There we made the break to get ready for the steep sections towards the ridge and the summit of Arrowhead. The other parties arrived and took over the routefinding towards the ridge. Along the ridge we skinned across the leeward and windward side to the summit. The snow on the windward side was far more compressed and towards the summit topped with a thin harder crust. To reach the summit was great but unfortunately not the view. The sun was a little bit shy and most ot the surrounding hidden in the clouds. But a least our summit was free and the view great for the descent. As we were the first on top we also hit the slopes first. Which was really great. The first bit was a little bit tricky with varying conditions underneath the wind pressed powder. Further down a big glade gave way for big fast turns in perfect powder of 8 inches. Everybody was covered in snow due to face shots. A bit of tree skiing brought us back to the clear cut we crossed during the ascend. We did two runs here in the unskied parts. The powder was even better and cushioned the landing from a drop off very well. The skiing through the lower clearcut was fun and the last bit of the logging road brought us back to the car. All in all it was a great day and I got to know another great ski touring area in the Cascades.