Feb 11, 2012-Steven's Pass, Heather/Skyline Ridge
2/15/12
WA Stevens Pass
3546
5
Primary objective: Procure pastries for self and sick-at-home husband from the Sultan Bakery.
Secondary objective: Ski decent snow on the backside of Heather Ridge¦or return to Sultan Bakery.
With our primary objective achieved by 7:30am, Andy, Mica, super-dog Tundra, and I proceeded up to Stevens Pass hoping that Andy Dappens description from last weekend of a thousand vertical feet of boot top powder off Peak 5447 might still hold true for today. Not actually believing it would, we sufficiently lowered our expectations for the day whilst gearing up and headed off to see what we might find.
The south facing slopes up to Skyline Lake were predictably crusty, though it was a pliable crust we told ourselves, imaging our descent several hours later. We topped out on 5447 and scooted down the ridge skiers left a bit to drop in to the north facing stuff on the backside of Heather Ridge. Boy, were we surprised to find that boot top powder was actually still holding!! It wasnt exactly a thousand vertical feet of powder at this point, but it was a thousand vertical feet of very enjoyable and supremely skiable snow on an intermittently detectable crust! We lapped those slopes two and-a-half times (the last lap-ette was executed purely to put tracks in a cute little natural halfpipe feature Andy spied) under skies that varied from bright sun to snow flurries and started back to the car around 1:30. The snow on the south facing slopes proved no challenge at all and after post-holing his way around the area for the previous five hours, Tundra was glad to have the well-trodden road to travel on the descent.
It was a surprisingly pleasant and productive day in the backcountry. Lesson learned - Good things come to those with lowered expectations.
Note: Those are not our tracks in the first pic. But they look nice, eh?
Secondary objective: Ski decent snow on the backside of Heather Ridge¦or return to Sultan Bakery.
With our primary objective achieved by 7:30am, Andy, Mica, super-dog Tundra, and I proceeded up to Stevens Pass hoping that Andy Dappens description from last weekend of a thousand vertical feet of boot top powder off Peak 5447 might still hold true for today. Not actually believing it would, we sufficiently lowered our expectations for the day whilst gearing up and headed off to see what we might find.
The south facing slopes up to Skyline Lake were predictably crusty, though it was a pliable crust we told ourselves, imaging our descent several hours later. We topped out on 5447 and scooted down the ridge skiers left a bit to drop in to the north facing stuff on the backside of Heather Ridge. Boy, were we surprised to find that boot top powder was actually still holding!! It wasnt exactly a thousand vertical feet of powder at this point, but it was a thousand vertical feet of very enjoyable and supremely skiable snow on an intermittently detectable crust! We lapped those slopes two and-a-half times (the last lap-ette was executed purely to put tracks in a cute little natural halfpipe feature Andy spied) under skies that varied from bright sun to snow flurries and started back to the car around 1:30. The snow on the south facing slopes proved no challenge at all and after post-holing his way around the area for the previous five hours, Tundra was glad to have the well-trodden road to travel on the descent.
It was a surprisingly pleasant and productive day in the backcountry. Lesson learned - Good things come to those with lowered expectations.
Note: Those are not our tracks in the first pic. But they look nice, eh?
Nice Beck! That's why I'm constantly lowering my expectations.
I copy Marcus. Reasonable snow when mank is expected is always a pleasure.
Fun tour and write-up, Becky. I went because I was told there would be cake. Last time, I didn't receive a piece. And I was told ...
As I recall, last time you were asked to buy me a piece and then you ate it on the drive home... or something like that.
Yeah, I can't believe you ate Marcus' bakery treat that one time Andy...jeez. :)
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