July 2: Sunrise, Social Xcountry-style Afternoon
7/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
1135
0
Girls trip with Laura
We began with shopping at the OR Retail Store in Seattle for possible stylish sports bras and softshell pants, and gabbed with my coworkers, who had taped my skis both together and to some shelving, knowing that I was planning to come grab them that morning, then finally moseyed toward Sunrise.
After gabbing at Wapiti Woolies, at the white river ranger station, and with random cyclists in the parking lot, we finally got on some very mushy snow at 3 p.m.
Having a topo map, a late start, and no actual specific plans, we decided to go for a little explore of the sunrise hiking trails via skis.
Our resulting route was as follows: Gained sourdough ridge just east of the sunrise main lodge area, then dropped toward huckleberry basin. Skinned up the immediate drainage then climbed back up to Sourdough ridge. Traversed towards frozen lake with the idea to move in the direction of the borrows. Skinned out to third borrows, dropped down the E-ish side towards the low spot between the first and second borrows where we came across a gregarious party of overnighters (more gabbing/ socializing ensued). Skinned back up to the second borrows and dropped the 35ish-degree northeast facing slope toward the direction of berkley park. Skinned up to frozen lake, and regained the lower Sourdough ridge traverse trail, and dropped toward the lodge.
Conditions were as one would expect-- slushy then firming slightly (corn cycle), with classical summertime attributes lower down (suncups/ runnels.)
We continued to socialize by calling up the kitchen at the Snorting Elk for pre-ordered pasta from the sunrise parking lot, then shutting it down and continuing over to B-lot for additional boozing.
A high point for humor for us was a section between the second and third borrow wherein we had ~200 vf to drop, didn't want to transition, but also didn't really want to ski with skins on downhill for quite so far. We felt we'd achieved style points by glisading, skis in hand, for this quick section. A snowshoer yelled over to us, "don't you guys know how to use your skis to go down?!"
The best turns for conditions were off the third borrows-- by this time (it was almost 7pm), the increased cloud cover and dropping temperatures had allowed for a slight re-firming of the slushy stuff.
The best turns for terrain were probably on the mid-thirties-ish-degree drop on the Northeast side of the 2nd borrows, just for the consistent fall line among the otherwise primarily cross-country ski explore.
The best pasta with chicken and veggies by far is cooked by Reid at the Elk.
I would recommend our route for anyone looking to practice side-hill traverse travel :)
Photos to come when I (hopefully) find my camera, which may have been a casualty of the snorting elk/B lot post-tour extravaganza.
We began with shopping at the OR Retail Store in Seattle for possible stylish sports bras and softshell pants, and gabbed with my coworkers, who had taped my skis both together and to some shelving, knowing that I was planning to come grab them that morning, then finally moseyed toward Sunrise.
After gabbing at Wapiti Woolies, at the white river ranger station, and with random cyclists in the parking lot, we finally got on some very mushy snow at 3 p.m.
Having a topo map, a late start, and no actual specific plans, we decided to go for a little explore of the sunrise hiking trails via skis.
Our resulting route was as follows: Gained sourdough ridge just east of the sunrise main lodge area, then dropped toward huckleberry basin. Skinned up the immediate drainage then climbed back up to Sourdough ridge. Traversed towards frozen lake with the idea to move in the direction of the borrows. Skinned out to third borrows, dropped down the E-ish side towards the low spot between the first and second borrows where we came across a gregarious party of overnighters (more gabbing/ socializing ensued). Skinned back up to the second borrows and dropped the 35ish-degree northeast facing slope toward the direction of berkley park. Skinned up to frozen lake, and regained the lower Sourdough ridge traverse trail, and dropped toward the lodge.
Conditions were as one would expect-- slushy then firming slightly (corn cycle), with classical summertime attributes lower down (suncups/ runnels.)
We continued to socialize by calling up the kitchen at the Snorting Elk for pre-ordered pasta from the sunrise parking lot, then shutting it down and continuing over to B-lot for additional boozing.
A high point for humor for us was a section between the second and third borrow wherein we had ~200 vf to drop, didn't want to transition, but also didn't really want to ski with skins on downhill for quite so far. We felt we'd achieved style points by glisading, skis in hand, for this quick section. A snowshoer yelled over to us, "don't you guys know how to use your skis to go down?!"
The best turns for conditions were off the third borrows-- by this time (it was almost 7pm), the increased cloud cover and dropping temperatures had allowed for a slight re-firming of the slushy stuff.
The best turns for terrain were probably on the mid-thirties-ish-degree drop on the Northeast side of the 2nd borrows, just for the consistent fall line among the otherwise primarily cross-country ski explore.
The best pasta with chicken and veggies by far is cooked by Reid at the Elk.
I would recommend our route for anyone looking to practice side-hill traverse travel :)
Photos to come when I (hopefully) find my camera, which may have been a casualty of the snorting elk/B lot post-tour extravaganza.
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