May 8, 2010, Mt. Catherine
5/8/10
WA Snoqualmie Pass
1794
0
As we were reminded on Saturday, "Mt. Catherine is a surprising tour...a surprising amount of vertical..." (Volken, 2002)
With a somewhat late start, Eveline, her son Vanya, and myself shoved off from the Snoq. Central base area at about 9 AM. As Hyak was melted out to 2/3 of the way up, this seemed most logical. Only upon our return to the car did we figure we'd added about 3.5 k. to the original tour description!
As we made our way toward the lower clearcut, the sun came out and began to work it's spring magic on the snowpack. No slides, as we found the on-again/off-again frozen oatmeal fairly stable. Things went well enough until we figured out that we were about 150' too high of the original route as we went up toward the summit bench , so opted for a more sporty ascent up a far-westerly little draw. After cresting this, we made a nice line to the summit, punctuated with some interesting kick-turns in the variable snow. Nice sunshine at the summit, but that darn oatmeal made the descent less than optimal. Making the best of things, we still smiled at the fact that we were just the 3 of us on such an incredible day, for both views and ski-touring...
Once back onto the XC trails, we made the much-longer-than-anticipated return to the car. (The tour out was considerably more energetic...) A final run down the mush of the Cehtral pistes and it was complete. We topped it all off with a chili-and-hot tub festival, sponsered by my wonderful wife on Mother's Day Eve. A great way to spend 6 hours, and gain 3500 of vert.
If we get a decent thaw/freeze cycle, and people have the energy, this will continue to be a nice day trip for the next few weeks. Here's hoping some of the rest of you can cash in!
With a somewhat late start, Eveline, her son Vanya, and myself shoved off from the Snoq. Central base area at about 9 AM. As Hyak was melted out to 2/3 of the way up, this seemed most logical. Only upon our return to the car did we figure we'd added about 3.5 k. to the original tour description!
As we made our way toward the lower clearcut, the sun came out and began to work it's spring magic on the snowpack. No slides, as we found the on-again/off-again frozen oatmeal fairly stable. Things went well enough until we figured out that we were about 150' too high of the original route as we went up toward the summit bench , so opted for a more sporty ascent up a far-westerly little draw. After cresting this, we made a nice line to the summit, punctuated with some interesting kick-turns in the variable snow. Nice sunshine at the summit, but that darn oatmeal made the descent less than optimal. Making the best of things, we still smiled at the fact that we were just the 3 of us on such an incredible day, for both views and ski-touring...
Once back onto the XC trails, we made the much-longer-than-anticipated return to the car. (The tour out was considerably more energetic...) A final run down the mush of the Cehtral pistes and it was complete. We topped it all off with a chili-and-hot tub festival, sponsered by my wonderful wife on Mother's Day Eve. A great way to spend 6 hours, and gain 3500 of vert.
If we get a decent thaw/freeze cycle, and people have the energy, this will continue to be a nice day trip for the next few weeks. Here's hoping some of the rest of you can cash in!
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