Jan 8, 2011, Mt Catherine / Hyak
1/8/11
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3040
3
First ski TR - finally getting out there!
Skied up at 830am with Erik, aiming for Mt Catherine and kind of knowing how to get there. Skinned up Hyak to the top, then skied down the backside. SW runs were nasty crust under not much powder - lots of hiding breakable crust and ice chunk.
Got stuck at the creek for a while - perhaps crossing at a bridge would be better than crossing on willows that submerged. Ah well.
Skated for a while on the cat-groomed nordic path, til we found tracks going up into the woods - then struck out on our own, aiming for NW ridge. Great skinning up mellow ridge, then at the steeper area up top contoured right on a great skin track til we then skinned up steep slopes. They got a bit sketch with 5" powder scraping off a 3" rain?-crust... didn't seem unstable per se but was hard to skin. Mellow higher, found another nice track, and up top found Christie & Joe, track-makers. Matt as well, as we lunched on the summit.
Headed down - great turns up high. The SW areas were again full of ice chunk (wind scoured) but in the trees and more S areas were good powder with enough cover over the crust to be nice.
Found our way to Windy Pass and poled on down the XC trail back to Hyak.
Great day out!
Heading to Red Mtn in the morning - any beta?
Skied up at 830am with Erik, aiming for Mt Catherine and kind of knowing how to get there. Skinned up Hyak to the top, then skied down the backside. SW runs were nasty crust under not much powder - lots of hiding breakable crust and ice chunk.
Got stuck at the creek for a while - perhaps crossing at a bridge would be better than crossing on willows that submerged. Ah well.
Skated for a while on the cat-groomed nordic path, til we found tracks going up into the woods - then struck out on our own, aiming for NW ridge. Great skinning up mellow ridge, then at the steeper area up top contoured right on a great skin track til we then skinned up steep slopes. They got a bit sketch with 5" powder scraping off a 3" rain?-crust... didn't seem unstable per se but was hard to skin. Mellow higher, found another nice track, and up top found Christie & Joe, track-makers. Matt as well, as we lunched on the summit.
Headed down - great turns up high. The SW areas were again full of ice chunk (wind scoured) but in the trees and more S areas were good powder with enough cover over the crust to be nice.
Found our way to Windy Pass and poled on down the XC trail back to Hyak.
Great day out!
Heading to Red Mtn in the morning - any beta?
Thanks for writing this up and breaking trail for the most part. Here's a few more pictures of Skye jumping off things.
didn't see your post till we decided to go, but as they say great minds think alike - or maybe it was just the magnetic powers of Catherine? Probably. Anyhow, hope you don't mind if we tag on a report, no sense in starting a new thread...
Surf was still up on Sunday! A foot of fluffy powder, just about everywhere more or less, enough in any case to mostly obliterate the previous days tracks.
The log drops coming down off the top were particularly fun. Looks like you enjoyed those too! Even without goggles (mine were iced and unuseable) there was plenty of definition in the trees, so sweetly spaced. So many options, varied terrain, soft and stable conditions - Catherine definitely delivered!
Cool too that none of us four knew each other and that none of us had been on Catherine. It was funny, at one point we all agreed to go one direction, but then all ended up going the other direction... somehow we all made it to the top. I'm still laughing... Thanks biker, Double E, and thomaskeefer!
most of my pics are lame and my movies somehow mostly face plants...
I know the others have better pics.
Surf was still up on Sunday! A foot of fluffy powder, just about everywhere more or less, enough in any case to mostly obliterate the previous days tracks.
The log drops coming down off the top were particularly fun. Looks like you enjoyed those too! Even without goggles (mine were iced and unuseable) there was plenty of definition in the trees, so sweetly spaced. So many options, varied terrain, soft and stable conditions - Catherine definitely delivered!
Cool too that none of us four knew each other and that none of us had been on Catherine. It was funny, at one point we all agreed to go one direction, but then all ended up going the other direction... somehow we all made it to the top. I'm still laughing... Thanks biker, Double E, and thomaskeefer!
most of my pics are lame and my movies somehow mostly face plants...
I know the others have better pics.
Hey Skye,
Nice to meet you on top of Mt. Catherine. Hope you had a good run down.
Nice to meet you on top of Mt. Catherine. Hope you had a good run down.
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