April 17, 2011, Spark Plug
4/17/11
5339
7
Finally made it all the way to the summit, although the condition wasn't optimal for skiing. Instead of partly cloudy sky in the afternoon, we had intermittent snow showers throughout the day with occasional sun breaks.
The approach was mostly straight forward except some frozen avy debris to cross over. The snow in the open had about 4" new over wet snow with consistency of "firm" tofu, fairly enjoy-able if you are not too picky about the quality ;)
The upper basin was very smooth without any avy debris. This helped skiing under very flat light. Overall, fun trip with great friends. I would come back when the snow condition is a bit better.
The approach was mostly straight forward except some frozen avy debris to cross over. The snow in the open had about 4" new over wet snow with consistency of "firm" tofu, fairly enjoy-able if you are not too picky about the quality ;)
The upper basin was very smooth without any avy debris. This helped skiing under very flat light. Overall, fun trip with great friends. I would come back when the snow condition is a bit better.
some more pics
The skiing was a lot more fun than i thought it would be! Of course it's always wonderfull being out in the mountains. Thanks for the pics Kenji, great skiing with you guys as always!
David
David
"fairly enjoy-able if you are not too picky about the quality"
Good rule for living, that.
Good rule for living, that.
Looks fun, thanks for the photos.
How long was your ski in before heading vertical?
How long was your ski in before heading vertical?
It's about 2.5 miles with 1200' gain on the Surprise Lake trail to where you would take off toward the Plug. It's just before the trail gets steeper to the lake. The hardest part of the route is to get above the first basin which has a steep step of about 400'. I've tried several variations over the years. This time we climbed straight on, and it was the shortest, but ugly and pretty exposed to any slide coming down.
Awesome! way to get on top there Kenji and crew. Someday I'll make it.
Once again, thanks for the inspiration, and saving me a PM of "how the heck do you get over that step?" I've tried both sides with some pain.
Was going to the east side yesterday but my truck could not make it over the pass. Seen ghosts of you down tracks, but not a sign of your up once you left the creek. new snow at the TH was about 2"s, but up higher we found 8-12"s.
only gained the upper lake before getting scared away by sun breaks and dampening snow. your tracks from there up had been completely erased. In your honor, I free healed from spark plug to lil plug lake. blower!
Once again, thanks for the inspiration, and saving me a PM of "how the heck do you get over that step?" I've tried both sides with some pain.
Was going to the east side yesterday but my truck could not make it over the pass. Seen ghosts of you down tracks, but not a sign of your up once you left the creek. new snow at the TH was about 2"s, but up higher we found 8-12"s.
only gained the upper lake before getting scared away by sun breaks and dampening snow. your tracks from there up had been completely erased. In your honor, I free healed from spark plug to lil plug lake. blower!
Great! Been looking at that one on the map for years
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