May 22, 2010, Yodelin

Not the most diffcult, nor the most asthetic, but it sure is nice to still find a low-hanging car-to-car ski tour on May 22! Lara, Derek, Shespiste and myself couldn't decide upon Big Jim Hill or Rock Mt. on our way toward Stevens Pass. Upon crossing the Pass, we saw the lack of South-facing snow, so piped in, "How about Yodelin?" Easy, north-facing, and drier than we'd expected. After a pretty leisurely ascent, with lots of good conversation, we lunched about 400 feet below the summit. Then, in returning to the ascent, passed thru a fairly recent burned 5-acre patch. Even had fresh snow fall on us throughout the day!

Lara and Derek continued up to the true summit, and shespiste and I conversed for 10 minutes about what a cool little tour this would be in the winter. All skied thru the burnt area, and then mooshed away the creamy mashed 'taters on the way down. We followed the fall line down to an old road patch at 4000 feet, then just followed the contour back to the true road. Slow but steady poling got us back to the car at about 4.5 hours round trip. This is a nice tour for anyone still interested in easy but lots of uninterrupted vertical; about 2000 feet.