Home > Trip Reports > August 6, 2011; Vesper Peak

August 6, 2011; Vesper Peak

8/15/11
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
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Posted by cascadesfreak on 8/6/11 3:08pm
Finally made it back to Vesper Peak with skis this time!  :)

Outstanding "joy o meter" for August : ~3,000 vertical feet skied / ~4,400 vertical feet hiked-skinned-climbed = 68% !!!

Approach trail is in excellent shape: downed logs cut and brush cleared back very recently. Thanks trail crews!!!

Encountered snow at about 3,500-ft in Avalanche Basin below Headlee Pass. One short "portage" over rocks in the basin, otherwise continuous snow up to Headlee Pass. A short hike on melted-out trail on south slopes beyond Headlee Pass, then back to skinning near 4,900-ft all the way up the summit.

Clouds began to break apart during the ascent with blue sky and sun above for the descent! Heavily suncupped, but soft enough for fun turns. A bit more chattery, but still fun turns down an east-facing chute to the still snow-covered lake basin east of Vesper, then bonus turns down a smaller basin below Headlee Pass. Climbed back up to Headlee for the ski back out: mostly survival-paramark-jump turns down the heavily sun-cupped snow gully below Headlee, then better turns in Avalanche Basin down to snowline.

August turns: check! And 8th year anniversary of turns every month!

More pics are posted here:
https://picasaweb.google.com/chriscass1/VesperPeakSkiMountainLoopHwyVicinityAugust62011?authkey=Gv1sRgCKHZnPGt3Ma0xwE#

author=cascadesfreak link=topic=21601.msg92539#msg92539 date=1312697311]
August turns: check! And 8th year anniversary of turns every month!

Excellent stuff.
How come so many of our TAY anniversaries occur in August or September?  ::)

Looks amazing out there. Nice!

Fantastic!  One of my favorites. How would you rate the Headlee ascent for danger factor for beginner hikers with a ski pole for example?  The fall line is a little off and some friends are contemplating a "hike" there. 

author=dkoelle link=topic=21601.msg92549#msg92549 date=1312772348]
How would you rate the Headlee ascent for danger factor for beginner hikers with a ski pole for example?  The fall line is a little off and some friends are contemplating a "hike" there. 
Wouldn't recommend it as a beginner "hike" until it melts out. Crampons/ice axe were nice to have (and were used) for the ascent up to Headlee.

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cascadesfreak
2011-08-06 22:08:31