Feb15, 2009, Jim Hill Mountain

Kevin the Animal, Telemack, Nick B.C. and myself were part of a Peninsula Wilderness Club gathering at the Mountaineers' cabin beside the Stevens Pass ski hill last weekend. I had never ventured out of the resort in the dozen years that I have skied there, so I was eager to join the outing that Rusty Knees had put into motion.Only Mosetick accompanied him from Seattle, but a party of 6 TAYers is a good number to have. We parked at Berne  (elevation approximately 2,700'),then walked and skied a ways along the highway before climbing up near Henry Creek through glades and tight forest stands. Eventually we broke out into a large clearing that unfortunately still had exposed alder, mading travel somewhat difficult. After working our way through a section of large conifers, we found ourselves in another open area with deeper snow but poorer stability. So around 5,000' we wisely decided to end our climb and get our turns. Photo 1 shows Rusty Knees, the Animal and Telemack in this section.

Even though the powder was thickest above, I had better results turning in the stuff above the alder thickets. The other two pictures were taken in this area. We followed some old tracks out towards the Henry Creek drainage system and avoided having to skin again. Travel though the forest on the thinnest layer of snow possible wasn't particularly fun. We eventually picked up the forestry road and made it back to the cars by 4:30.Even though it seemed to have snowed all day, there wasn't much of a noticeable accumulation on our  seven hour old tracks. I am sure that other members of the party will step in and fill in the gaps of this report.