October 31, 2004, Twin Lakes area - North Cascades

In search of some Halloween "freshies"; our group of 6 (Kevin, Michael, Corinne, Sara, Sean and myself) headed up the Twin Lakes Road (NE of Mt. Baker near the Canadian border) to scope out some slopes above Twin Lakes.  The prospect of good skiing looked promising as there was a fresh coating of snow at the beginning of the Twin Lakes Road (elev. ~2,200') where we turned-off the Mt. Baker Hwy.  With the aid of 4 wheel drive, we were able get the "Blue Wonder" (Kevin's '83-vintage Subaru wagon) up ~ 5 miles to  ~4,000' elev. on the Twin Lakes Road where deeper snow (~8"+) and steeper road grades encouraged a stopping point, a little ways beyond the Yellow Aster Butte trailhead.  About 1.5 miles of skinning up the road brought us to Twin Lakes (elev. ~5,100').  A quick 18" deep snow pit to the ground near the lakes revealed ~12" of super-fluffy sugary snow over a ~6" slightly consolidated base).  We were not alone up here as some earlier-arrived powder hounds from Glacier had already made some first tracks in the fresh, deep, sugary powder.  There was also a different group, 3 snowboarders along with a dog, which arrived shortly after we reached Twin Lakes.  There were still plenty of nice un-tracked lines left.  We took 2 runs down on the northwesterly-facing slopes above the lakes (~500 vert ft per run) through incredible "hero snow" (nice face-shots in the sugary powder).  After lunch we skinned passed the lakes to check out a northerly-facing ridge.  The snow was still soft as we began ascending on the ridge, but became noticeable more wind-affected with a slight "whump"-ing sound in the shallow snowpack.  This encouraged a change in plan with a return back to the better snow on the northwest aspects for our second run of the day.  The ski back down from the lakes was enjoyable, hucking off the road near the switchbacks to ski through brush with the occasional scraping noise of a rock hitting the ski bases (the snowpack is much shallower below Twin Lakes).  Each of us found a slightly different line for dropping down the final snowy, steep road cut (~20 feet high) to regain the road bed near the last switchback.  Corinne and Sara found  lines through some brush, Michael and myself dropped off opposite sides of a stump, Sean squeezed in a steep line between a stump and spindly brush (nicely done particularly considering it was his first time out on skis in ~10 years), and Kevin took the conservative line (skiing down the road instead of cutting the switchback).  An enjoyable day out in the Great White North (Cascades).
   
(Photo link  to be posted later)  

--Chris Cass(hole)