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4-7-12, thunderlakes rambling

4/7/12
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Posted by alecapone on 4/8/12 4:59am
Full moon plans fell through, and I was feeling less then ambitious. I decided I'd reuse most of the skin track my dog and I put up to Nimbus the day before. Left the train station at 6 am without a headlamp and made it to the lake by 8:30, probably the quickest time yet. SNow on teh way up went from crusty(2.5 miles), to really nice powder in very skiable old growth(about 1000').Sunrise was gorgeous and it was nice with a cool breeze blowing and keeping the great. Stopped at the cafe for some coffee and then headed up the west slopes of thunder ridge with no particular goal other then to find some good snow. The previous day Kololo and I where able to ride a south west facing line in powder with the absence of sun.

Went most of the way up thunder, but when I turned the corner from the thunder col(?) onto the south east facing the new snow got damp and was sliding a little. Wasn't a peak bagging day, so a north facing line it is. Superb, with some slow sloughing. only decended about 1,500' and then reclimbed the track midway. from there it was still looking good to get up to thunder lakes through the nimbus col(?). It was windy, but so nice up there. Almost everytime I've been up here, it's been in a white out. In no hurry i commenced to actually touring around the lake just looking. enjoying setting my usuall loopy hippy skin track all over the place. Actually, I was looking for Zack and Jeff who where supposed to be in the area. Didn't see them anywhere. Setteled in on another nice north facing line to ride for another 1,000'+.

Skinned up a big wide open powder filled bowl and circumnavigated whatever it is I rode off of. Not really sure of all the nomenculture up there. South east facing was firming back up in the shade making for safe easy travel. after geting back up to thunder lakes I traversed out along thunder ridge(?) all the way down to slippery slab. all of the south west lines looked like they could be good corn skiing if it wasn't 5pm. Besides, awesome looking powder lines where staring back at me... beckoning. Skinned back along the ridge and around nimbus to the west face and a line that wasn;t ridable most of the year. This time I rode teh entire 2,000' back to surprise lake....

As I made my way out I noticed that there had been a couple snowshoers, dogs, and skiers up for the day. I wondered if it was Zack and Jeff? The snowshoers made a [post hole here and there but I am always thrilled when I see someone makes use of my track regardless of there choice of recreation. Since I had my skins on, and some remaining day light, I continued up the north east rdige of spark plug for one more great ride through trees and powder pillows and eventually back to a shaded crust 1,500' below. Skins on for the exit and back to the car with no head lamp by 6:30.

awesome day..!

made even more so by knowing the history of the area. wondering, is this the way Kenji went? Which way did Lowell and company travel during their traverse?

a few pictures...

south west nimbus. you can kind of see our tracks from teh day before.



which way to go?



Kololo and I went this way this last year..



this way!!



Looking back on the climb



next line



looking at you sun!



what the loop?





not here...


there!









oh yeah.. I skied about a 500' line too!!!



soorry for all the photos. all figures are rough estimates. about 15 miles and 8,000'

*removed extra blank lines at the end - Marcus*
Nice photos!

Awesome work!  I assume pooch wasn't with you for all of that?  Didn't see any puppy tracks in your pictures.

Nice! Wasn't feeling ambitious? Yet 8k?

HEY! look at that ... the man can take some mighty fine photos .. great work scott!

Train station and a on mountain cafe, must be in the alps somewhere.

Great post Scott!  Good photos too.

That's inspiring. What a great finale to the time you've spent up there this winter. Very cool.

----

As to the ski traverse I did through the area, we just followed the Crest Trail route. With more time it would be great to wander around like you've done, but we were on a Point A to Point B mission, with just two days to get from Stevens Pass to the Cle Elum River. Our loss. It's great to see more of the area. I've done some summer hiking up there and it's beautiful country.

After skiing Friday, I was suprised at how much new snow there was. With the forecasted sun on Saturday I chickened out on committing myself to possibility of having to traverse several unknown south facing slopes on the Stevens to Suprise traverse. Jeff and I made rough plans to come in via moonlight on Sat. Night but 12 ounce curls wrecked that plan. Double fail:( Nice Picts, stuff looks crazy filled in up there.
Zack

Good call snoholic.. I wasn't sure what your route was, but south facing wouldn't have be too pleasant for travel mid day.

As for the pictures...thanks everybody! but I just have a pos p&s I found in the stevens pass parking lot. set it to the moutain icon and click. subject matter does most of the work, but they would probably be much better behind a real photographers lens. The sun and clouds where making for a great light show all day.

Thanks Lowell. It was a special winter, and a nice finale tour of sorts. Tough to beak away, but I'm looking forward to getting to some of the other areas I love.

And yes Leyland.. Stevens Alps! Was it redundant, or just very American to say I went the cafe for coffee?

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4-7-12-thunderlakes-rambling
alecapone
2012-04-08 11:59:05