January 14, 2005, Waptus River, Salmon la Sac
1/14/05
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
4646
5
Wanting to ski, but not wanting to deal with the high avalanche danger right now, I had been scouring my brain for a tour that would have enough snow to be fun but wasn't all logging road and clear cut. It's tough right now to think of such a place. Most of the forested places to which I would normally go don't seem to have enough snow to make them fun. My mind kept returning to the Polallie Ridge - Waptus River area out of Salmon la Sac, so when I found a gullible partner in CharlesW, we made plans to try skiing the Waptus River trail, which runs up the river's valley from Salmon la Sac to Waptus Lake, 9 miles away.
On this weekday morning there were just a few s-mobiles at the snopark, and we were quickly into non-motorized territory as we crossed the bridge over the Cle Elum River into the campground area, which is reserved for non-motorized winter sports. The trailhead is for three trails: Cooper River trail, Polallie Ridge trail, and Waptus River trail. Very shortly they each go their own way, and with the cold powdery snow we soon had to skin up as our fishscale skis couldn't climb the gentle grade of the Waptus River trail.
The snowpack seemed to have improved a bit since Daniel's Polallie Ridge report from last weekend. There appeared to be a few inches of new snow (lots of graupel) over what must have been Daniel's 12" of powder, now denser but still loose. Under that was the rain crust, and then just a few inches of snow to the ground. Especially in open areas, the snow under the crust had become large grained and crumbly. Farther along the trail the snow became a little deeper - maybe 2 feet total.
The trail climbed slowly for about 500 vf, entering the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and crossing little ridges to a high point, where it descended slowly about the same amount to reach the Waptus River. Previous showshoers had packed a nice track on part of the trail. We de-skinned at the high point and had some fun glides down the trail; there was enough snowpack that we could kill speed by getting out of the track into the deeper snow for tight turns of the trail. The forest through which the trail winds is nice, and it was interesting to see the transition from open forest to dense jungle as the aspect became more northerly.
Once to the Waptus River, the terrain was very flat and provided for great kick and glide on the fast snow. We turned around at Hour Creek, which looked like it would take two winter's worth of snow before becoming bridged. After skiing back along the flat part, we skied over the the bank of the Waptus River for a break. We didn't have a thermometer, but it was quite cold (mid-teens?) and didn't take very long before we wanted to get moving and generate some heat. We skinned back up to the high point, then de-skinned for the glide back down. Some of the older tracks showed us a more direct way back to the campground road, so we took that and avoided the little trail ups which are so much work with the waxless skis in cold snow. When we got back to the campground road, we found that it had been freshly groomed in preparation for the weekend - we got first tracks! Just before we got back to the car, two FS employees on s-mobiles stopped to talk to CharlesW. They had been up the road to Fish Lake looking for evidence of s-mobiles crossing into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. Didn't get a report on what they found, though.
This little tour turned out as well as I had hoped, and much better than I had feared. It goes through nice forest, and quickly gets one away from the sounds and smells of the motorized crowd. It is even possible to find a few low-angle turns along the way.
On this weekday morning there were just a few s-mobiles at the snopark, and we were quickly into non-motorized territory as we crossed the bridge over the Cle Elum River into the campground area, which is reserved for non-motorized winter sports. The trailhead is for three trails: Cooper River trail, Polallie Ridge trail, and Waptus River trail. Very shortly they each go their own way, and with the cold powdery snow we soon had to skin up as our fishscale skis couldn't climb the gentle grade of the Waptus River trail.
The snowpack seemed to have improved a bit since Daniel's Polallie Ridge report from last weekend. There appeared to be a few inches of new snow (lots of graupel) over what must have been Daniel's 12" of powder, now denser but still loose. Under that was the rain crust, and then just a few inches of snow to the ground. Especially in open areas, the snow under the crust had become large grained and crumbly. Farther along the trail the snow became a little deeper - maybe 2 feet total.
The trail climbed slowly for about 500 vf, entering the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area and crossing little ridges to a high point, where it descended slowly about the same amount to reach the Waptus River. Previous showshoers had packed a nice track on part of the trail. We de-skinned at the high point and had some fun glides down the trail; there was enough snowpack that we could kill speed by getting out of the track into the deeper snow for tight turns of the trail. The forest through which the trail winds is nice, and it was interesting to see the transition from open forest to dense jungle as the aspect became more northerly.
Once to the Waptus River, the terrain was very flat and provided for great kick and glide on the fast snow. We turned around at Hour Creek, which looked like it would take two winter's worth of snow before becoming bridged. After skiing back along the flat part, we skied over the the bank of the Waptus River for a break. We didn't have a thermometer, but it was quite cold (mid-teens?) and didn't take very long before we wanted to get moving and generate some heat. We skinned back up to the high point, then de-skinned for the glide back down. Some of the older tracks showed us a more direct way back to the campground road, so we took that and avoided the little trail ups which are so much work with the waxless skis in cold snow. When we got back to the campground road, we found that it had been freshly groomed in preparation for the weekend - we got first tracks! Just before we got back to the car, two FS employees on s-mobiles stopped to talk to CharlesW. They had been up the road to Fish Lake looking for evidence of s-mobiles crossing into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area. Didn't get a report on what they found, though.
This little tour turned out as well as I had hoped, and much better than I had feared. It goes through nice forest, and quickly gets one away from the sounds and smells of the motorized crowd. It is even possible to find a few low-angle turns along the way.
After reading your TR and knowing the avy conditions and pouring through my limited guidebook library, I planned on heading to tour the Howson Creek trail in the Salmon La Sac area on Sunday.
Our party of three included myself, my wife and a friend who had never tried backcountry skiing. Heading over the pass, we were dealing with 15 deg temps and rain. Really strange, icy roads, slow traffic, and wiper problems lead to a change of plans and we stopped at Hyak to maybe do a tour.
The snow there, around 3,000 ft, was about a 1/4 inch of icy crust on top of a couple feet of granular fluffy stuff.
Skinning, it was really noisy breaking the crust. A pole plant would break through, but if you weren't emphatic your pole would skate across it. The crust conspired to remove my skins from my skis and cut the tour very short.
We did some transceiver hide-n-go-seek and called it a day.
Skiing down and out, the crust was very difficult to turn on.
Sometimes, you just can't force it. The cold temps and wet precipitation was causing frost to accumulate on everything.
Luckily, we weren't caught by any major accidents or road closures.
I think that it's going to take a little while to make those lower elevations worth turning on.
Our party of three included myself, my wife and a friend who had never tried backcountry skiing. Heading over the pass, we were dealing with 15 deg temps and rain. Really strange, icy roads, slow traffic, and wiper problems lead to a change of plans and we stopped at Hyak to maybe do a tour.
The snow there, around 3,000 ft, was about a 1/4 inch of icy crust on top of a couple feet of granular fluffy stuff.
Skinning, it was really noisy breaking the crust. A pole plant would break through, but if you weren't emphatic your pole would skate across it. The crust conspired to remove my skins from my skis and cut the tour very short.
We did some transceiver hide-n-go-seek and called it a day.
Skiing down and out, the crust was very difficult to turn on.
Sometimes, you just can't force it. The cold temps and wet precipitation was causing frost to accumulate on everything.
Luckily, we weren't caught by any major accidents or road closures.
I think that it's going to take a little while to make those lower elevations worth turning on.
Thanks for the report Charles.. How hard is it to follow the trail? I'm planning on leading a WSTC trip out there in mid-Feb (hopefully there will be some new snow by then) and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to scout it first and collect GPS waypoints -- I've hiked the trail in the summer and it seems like it should be OK, but following a trail in winter can be tricky.
Randy, with the ~2 feet of snow we had, the trail was easy to follow. Based on LarryR's report from this week, it should be even easier to follow now - if there is any snow at all. With 5+ feet of snow the trail would be harder to follow, especially from the trailhead, over the high point, and down to near the flats along the Waptus River. I have done it once with a hefty snowpack, and the navigation was challenging because the relief is small in there, but we did it with just 7.5 min maps, no GPS. If there is enough snow, you don't really need to stay on the trail anyway - sometimes that is more fun, too!
Thanks for the Snoqualmie Pass report, gusk. I guess things must be different now because you were there before the rain?
Thanks for the Snoqualmie Pass report, gusk. I guess things must be different now because you were there before the rain?
Thanks for the info. -- I sure hope there is enough new snow to make it hard to follow the trail (queue man of la mancha soundtrack) ;D
I've kayaked the waptus. It is a beautiful river. Thanks for the report...
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