Dec 17-18, 09, French Cabin Cr. - Cle Elum valley

This was the third snow camping trip up the Cle Valley for Jane and me, the last two being on skis. Lot's of heavy new snow and little possibility of good turns higher up made French Cabin Creek a better destination, as opposed to our usual spot on Sasse Ridge. At 3100 feet where we camped,  there were 16 inches heavy new snow on top of 8 inches of old granular snow. The temp stayed at about 32 degrees the whole time.

As I had not been up there for a few weeks, I was not completely sure if the snowpack model was telling me the truth, and so I was not really certain about which skis to bring. Jane and I decided that it probably was not that far wrong, so we took our randonee gear, and Jane even took her fancy Trabs. It turned out the model was fairly accurate, especially if you allow for the fact that French Cabin Creek does not get quite the snowfall that you get above the Salmon La Sac parking lot. (I think this is due to extra precip that comes right up the Gold Creek valley, over the crest, and then out over Cooper Lake.  See pic.

The ski back down the road was much better than I thought it would be; we could actually let the skis run in some heavy but skiable snow.

By the way, skiing up, we followed some fairly fresh cougar tracks, heading north and down the hill. For some reason, I often see them heading north this time of year, and in the spring, they are usually headed south.

Larry