May day, 2009, Birthday Tour, WA Pass
5/15/09
WA Cascades East Slopes North
1319
1
Ive wanted to do the birthday tour for a while and was lucky to be able to ski it on a weekday with beautiful sunny skies. James, Lynn, and I headed up to WA pass on Friday morning with the plan of the birthday tour on Friday and Silver Star on Saturday, hopefully maximizing the weather forecast.
Left the trailhead after noon on Friday (many cars, limited parking!) but the snow conditions were great. The snow was probably soft enough to skin up blue lake col but the boot track was so great we took advantage of it. Thanks to whoever kicked in the steps. The snow was fantastic everywhere except for just over the notch before heading back down the northside where it was icy and then a little crusty. Overall, the conditions couldnt have been better! The tour was much shorter than we expected, left us wanting more, had we known we would have stayed to yo-yo and get more great turns on the fantastic corn. We dropped down to the northside pretty far west on the ridge, werent sure if the true tour goes over a notch further east torwards Copper. The avalanche debris above the hairpin is quite impressive!
Left the trailhead after noon on Friday (many cars, limited parking!) but the snow conditions were great. The snow was probably soft enough to skin up blue lake col but the boot track was so great we took advantage of it. Thanks to whoever kicked in the steps. The snow was fantastic everywhere except for just over the notch before heading back down the northside where it was icy and then a little crusty. Overall, the conditions couldnt have been better! The tour was much shorter than we expected, left us wanting more, had we known we would have stayed to yo-yo and get more great turns on the fantastic corn. We dropped down to the northside pretty far west on the ridge, werent sure if the true tour goes over a notch further east torwards Copper. The avalanche debris above the hairpin is quite impressive!