Nov 20-21, 2010, Cutthroat Pass

Nice powder in the cutthroat pass area with enough coverage to generally avoid rockage. Road and trail skiing to get there via cutthroat lake had just enough, 18 inches, and coverage began in ernest around 5500 feet. Good skiing from the ridge at 7200 feet and through the trees in nice powder.





Danger: nostalgic ramblings and more trip details.

17 years ago, I headed to Cutthroat pass on my new ultimate tele setup: Kazama couloirs, Merrlel Ultras, and voile three pin bindings. The skis were slightly wider than traditional xc-skis....and definitely narrower than the downhill skis of the day. I remember the trip foundly despite the fact that it took all day breaking trail to make it to camp at 6000 ft in the dark. However we awoke to sunny skies and a foot of powder and more trailbreaking, which meant that we only took one run from Cutthroat pass (or actually the ridge east of the pass). This of course left me wanting more, even though it was after dark by the time we made it back to the car.

So some 17 years later, I was drawn to return, despite better telemetry at paradise. There was some 16 inches of powder on very little base as my ski poles hit the road as we skinned up. Luckily, XC-skiers had broken trail to cutthroat lake so the road and trail went quickly. I felt somewhat foolish touring on my wide teleskis and plastic boots. It was at this point that I remembered what equipement I was using 17 years ago and how it made more sense for this trip with so much flat trail touring.

Anyway, we began breaking trail up this very flat trail, gaining elevation slowly. After another mile or so and a few switchbacks, there finally was enough snow to start cutting the switchbacks. We soon made camp at 5700 and by 3:30 we were ready to head out for some turns...After more trailbreaking over some flat areas, we reached a full 100 feet above the bottom of the ski run proper. However it was 4:30 and getting dark. Ugh...So we turned around and got a whopping 10 turns through the trees...and then headed back down the skintrack to camp. I guess 10 turns are better than none, and at least we had part of the skin track in for the next day.

The next morning, we got a late 8:40 start, and made it to the ridge by 11:20. Oh well it left enough time to get a 2nd run at 1:30...woohoo. Both runs were excellently timed by luck for maximum visibility due to some minor sunbreaks between snowstorms. We stuck to mellow terrain and generally avoided hitting rocks. It was awesome skiing both in the open slopes near the pass and in the trees down lower. MegasmilageDude.

We broke camp at 3:15 and made it down the trail without too much rockage. Though each time we crossed a little stream, ice would freeze to the bottoms of our skis... which did good for controlling speed, but made for slow going. We finally reached cutthroat lake, scraped the ice from our skis and poled our way out to the road on the nice xc track. Luckily the road was steep enough to carry our speed back to the car around 4:30 as things began to get dark.