Home > Trip Reports > Jan 27-28, 2012, Sasse Ridge

Jan 27-28, 2012, Sasse Ridge

1/27/12
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Posted by Larry_R on 1/30/12 3:30am
Jane and I finally made it back to Sasse Ridge this last Friday €“ Saturday. With three feet or more of new snow as a result of the recent storms, we were not sure if we would be able to make it very far, but it turned out that there was a rain crust about 8 inches down so we were able to get to our usual spot. A nice sunny afternoon and then the usual rapid cooling after the sun set. The low ended up at 10 degrees, but clouds came over after midnight and by the time we started up the hill at 6:00 Saturday it was up to around 20 degrees; quite nice.

It was noticeably harder for me this year to make it to the top of the ridge compared to last, but at least I made it. Except for wind/rain crust for the top 200 v. feet of the ridge, the skiing was quite good all the way to the valley floor. By the end of February that€™s unlikely to happen again till next year.   
Here€™a a link to a few pics which I hope are self explanatory. I think Jane and I had previously written about our various ways of packing out a tent platform. One of the pics illustrates the initial post holing of the site, and the following shows the final result after the snow has set up. My thought is that when there is a lot of unconsolidated snow, the first thing you want to do after very roughly side stepping the site is to disturb the snow as much as possible over the whole site. I think of the way avalanche debris sets up; it€™s a function of time, so the more time the necessary thickness of snow has to set before you put the tent up the better.

To amuse Marcus I also included two pics of the custom tent and rainfly tensioners I use. They are made from quarter inch delrin rod with a small hole drilled down the center through which the cord passes, and then shaped as shown. They can be operated with one hand, even with overmitts on, and they never freeze up.  The cord itself is 200 # test, 1 / 16 inch spectra cored polyester, commonly used for control lines on racing dinghies. It€™s about half the diameter of the special Kelty tent cord, useful for all sorts of things.

https://skydrive.live.com/?cid=d9374555cbe355aa&id=D9374555CBE355AA%21509



I am amused.  :)  And, as usual, love the little tricks, thanks Larry.  That is one pretty tent platform.




Awesome Lar, to get another complete, quality, ridge to river ski for the two of you.  No Sac crud zone!
Good to see the ole' Sasse Clinic TR again.
John

Having attempted this route a couple years ago on breakable crust we thought we'd try again Saturday January 28.  Friday night we camped in the snow park lot then followed your tracks up to the top of the clear cut on Saturday.  We admired your tent platform on the way up.  Our goal was Jolly Mountain but weather deteriorated (rain) at around 1:30.  Jolly was in sight but in the clouds so we turned around before the final ridge and climb.  The ski conditions were variable (not great) on the way back down. 




thanks for the nice skin track. Wanted to say good morning too you both but...I thought I heard snoring ;-). Nice view

author=Zaskar link=topic=23476.msg99545#msg99545 date=1327968710]
thanks for the nice skin track. Wanted to say good morning too you both but...I thought I heard snoring ;-). Nice view


Knowing Larry and Jane, Zaskar, unless you went through pre-dawn then that probably was their equivalent of an afternoon nap!  I am most certain they would have started upslope with headlamps.  At least that has been protocol on many an enjoyable trip I have shared with Larry in the past.

author=Zaskar link=topic=23476.msg99545#msg99545 date=1327968710]
... Wanted to say good morning too you both but...I thought I heard snoring ;-).


SeaShe and Zaskar, you are probably right! Nothing feels as good as a nice nap in a warm sleeping bag after our early morning ski. Our skin track up the frontside was a bit unorthodox, but we had a plan as they say. I think it's worth going back to Jolly on a nice day, just for the view if nothing else; here's a link to an old pan from the summit, originally intended as a printed booklet:

http://www.larryscascaderesource.com/pdf/JollyMtnlabeled.pdf


And here's another labeled one from 2007 as a 360 degree pan using the Deval VR viewer.


http://www.larryscascaderesource.com/qtvr/JollyLabeled.html


I suppose I should update it to use a more common plug-in, but it will also display using Apple QuickTime if you change the extension to .mov. It should anyway. :-)

http://www.larryscascaderesource.com/qtvr/JollyLabeled.mov

Larry

very nice! I can see why you hang out here often. Lots of potential

Thanks,
Randy (aka Zaskar)

I thought I heard voices mid morning when I was drying out my clothes in my tent, I poked my head outside half way thinking I might see John coming for a visit. Larry's tent was perfectly still and I didn't see anyone, so I thought I was imagining things. I was running my stove, so it was very hard to hear if there was really someone going by.  Sorry to miss saying Hi! It is always fun to cross paths with others. It doesn't happen very often.
Jane

author=larry's sister link=topic=23476.msg99718#msg99718 date=1328157306]
I thought I heard voices mid morning when I was drying out my clothes in my tent, I poked my head outside half way thinking I might see John coming for a visit. Larry's tent was perfectly still and I didn't see anyone, so I thought I was imagining things. I was running my stove, so it was very hard to hear if there was really someone going by.  Sorry to miss saying Hi! It is always fun to cross paths with others. It doesn't happen very often.
Jane


Finally got a chance to look at your PDF's and movies, Larry.  Wow, what a view on a sunny day!
We were trying to be very quiet when we went by since we saw the skis sticking up near the tents :)

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jan-27-28-2012-sasse-ridge
Larry_R
2012-01-30 11:30:57