May 22-25, N Fork Entiat River Valley, May powder

Hi folks, I'm not normally much of a TR poster, but I thought I would share a little beta on this great area since it probably doesn't get visited a whole lot on skis.  Before taking off on this trip the weather forecasts indicated the east slopes of the Cascades would likely have some sunshine while the west slopes got rained and snowed on. Being a fan of sunshine (aren't we all?) I asked Pat if he wanted to join me for a few nights in the Entiat area. We set off Saturday on the long drive from Seattle to the North Fork Entiat River trailhead. We were able to drive to within a few hundred feet of the summer trailhead, where a final dying snow patch blocked us. It will likely be drivable to the end by any vehicle within the week.

We started out in trail shoes with the skis and boots on our back. The wide and easy to follow trail became consistently snow covered within a mile and we switched to skis immediately after crossing the S fork of Pyramid Creek, 1 1/4 miles down the trail. We remained on the trail for most of the way up the valley, though the terrain is pretty open forest and the navigation is easy on or off the trail. The main obstacles are the tree wells which have made moving through the forest require quite a bit of snaking around, slowing progress a bit. We camped in a small clearing next to the river, looking forward to waking up to sunshine.

Alas, the morning brought not sunshine, but snow flurries. We leisurely ate breakfast and packed up and started making our way to the upper valley in steadily increasing snow. Around 6000 feet the valley really begins to open up and it was evident, despite the limited visibility, that there is a lot of really great skiing terrain in here.  We found a nice clearing in the upper basin to camp in, and tucked our tent and tarp up next to some trees  and got to the important business of drying off and taking a break from the snow. Still convinced that the weather "would break soon", we relaxed and enjoyed our relatively plush campsite, reading some magazines Pat had wisely brought along. The snow kept falling. By evening it started to clear up and we went to bed excited for sun and powder the next day.

Not surprisingly, we again woke up to snow and low clouds. We packed some day supplies and headed up towards the basin beneath Cardinal Peak. We were really excited to find the snow was light, decent quality powder on top of a smooth base. We quickly made it up to the basin beneath Cardinal and eyed the col we were hoping to cross. The cloud deck was obscuring the top of the peaks and making the light above quite flat. I kept eyeing the awesome Larch basins we had skinned up through, thinking of how much nicer skiing with the trees for depth perception would be. It took us all of two minutes to bail on going higher. The skiing from here back to our camp was incredible. It is low to moderate angle, but features widely spaced trees, and the fast, very consistent snowpack with fresh powder was a blast to ski. We made it back to camp, fired up the stove to enjoy some tea and lunch, and then left our packs to head up our skin track for another run, going a few hundred feet higher this time. We took a different line this time through some more larch groves and it was even better than the first! After another afternoon food/drink session, we skinned north from camp to check out the basin betweem Saska and Emerald Peak. More great turns through nicely spaced trees were found here. We finished the evening off with a nice warming fire and once again went to bed under clearing skies.

Of course the clearing was too good to be true and we woke up again to snow, this time dumping heavily. Being our last day and having miles of sub-alpine forest deproach torture lying ahead we lazed around the tent until noon waiting for the weather to break. It never happened and we eventually departed in the snow. Thankfully by the time we reached the transition to rain it wasn't precipitating much. The first 1000 feet or so to the lower basin was quite enjoyable. After that, the "ski"  out was long and tiring, and while not what I would call fun, I've done much worse.

All and all, the North Fork Entiat valley offers absolutely exceptional ski terrain.  Not only were the runs we made a blast, but looking around the valley it was evident how many other great lines there are. You can find anything from low angle cruising to steep gullies to ski. It is definitely a bit of a trek to get in there so I would reserve the area for mutli-day trips, but if you're looking for some great terrain and willing to deal with some forest mileage (not to mention driving) to get there, this is a great little corner of the Cascades.

Here are some more pictures on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/46825587@N02/sets/72157624143633254/

Unfortunately the weather didn't give the best photo opportunities. If anybody knows an easy way to post a whole group of photos from flickr inline, please let me know. I'm too lazy to go through and cut and paste a bunch of URLs, so here are 3 pictures.