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April 13-16 Holden adventure

4/15/12
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Posted by mikerolfs on 4/16/12 2:20pm
Tom suggested a fun trip to the Lyman Lake area, so on Friday the 13th, Tom, Patti, and my family rode the "Lady of the Lake" from Field's Point Landing to Lucern where we were met by a school bus on the dock and a human conveyor belt up the ramp.







The bus took us from the lake at 1180' to Holden at 3200' where the entire village turned out to wave to us in greeting.  We were ushered into the common area for announcements, a table blessing, and a hearty lunch after which our luggage was unloaded from the bus.   I was eager, and the civilized pace of the village was hard for me to accept, but it turned out lucky that we left so late.  It was a very warm day, and I believe that just about every slope that could slide, did slide.  We saw lots of debris, but we witnessed no activity at all.   Maybe that table blessing delayed our start just the right amount.  It must have been crazy earlier in the day!


This one broke the ice on Heart Lake!


These bear tracks wandered out of a debris pile.  I wonder if this guy had his hibernation cut short by a wet slide?


Although the views were nice, Friday the 13th turned out to be a horrible day for travel.  The wet snow trail breaking was a sugar slog and our speed was right around 1 mph.  We didn't quite make it to Lyman Lake before it got dark.  Saturday was a new day.  Not quite the views, but the below freezing weather gave us a nice crust and way better travel!


We intended to ski up to North Star and return the same way we had gone up.


Tom on the North Star summit ridge.


But once we looked East into Agnes Creek, we knew where we needed to ski!


Blue is up, red is down.  The second little up/down was our detour to "Where the Hell Are We" pass.  (That was a good run)


Tom and Patti skiing the east slope of Cloudy Peak into Agnes Creek


Beautiful trees in Agnes Creek


This is the way to "Where the Hell Are We" Pass.


And here is Tom.  I'm pretty sure he's saying to himself "Where the hell are we?"


Patti resisted bribery, compliments, and threats, but she did not give up her down filled feather bed.


On Sunday we skied toward Spider gap under a mostly sunny sky


Spider gap from the Upper Lyman Lakes


We skied the lower section of the Lyman Glacier, skated across the upper basin, made corny turns to the Lake and started home before lunch.

Tom and Patti with the Lyman Glacier beyond


On Lyman Lake :)


On the ski out, we saw another kind of scary avalanche (again, didn't witness the slide, just saw the evidence)


Here are highlights from the skin out (its a 7 mile valley slog, so any highlight is a highlight)

The pleasant side of the exit-


Fun bridge-


And we saved some time by skiing the steep section adjacent to Crown Point Falls (wooHoo!) 


We arrived at Holden in time for dinner and a shower and who shows up but Kyle Miller and Jason Hummel!  What a treat to get to chat with those two.  They had done a similar tour from Friday thru Sunday.  and by "similar" I mean longer, steeper and in a generally different direction.

Kyle's snowboard and Jason's skis at Holden


Bus ride back to the boat with my Family

(except the middle girl who lives at Holden and just likes to ride the bus up and down the hill)

As always, we wished we had another day or two to spend.  We had started the trip wanting to ski the Isella Glacier on Bonanza.  Our Friday approach was so late and so slow that we couldn't fit that in.  Once we were in the Lyman Lake area, we wished we had a day to make runs from all directions down to the lake.  That would have been fun!  Oh well.  Next time.  We were surprised not to see any skier tracks.  Fun trip.










Hey - nice trip, thanks for the post.  Been up there in summer climbing but not yet for a ski - this and a couple other trips reports make me want to do so.  You folks look like you had your packing down to the lean and mean weight based on the size of your packs. 

What a trip! I think I'm too much of a whiner baby to travel with your crew! thanks for the great trip report.

author=jtack link=topic=24528.msg103626#msg103626 date=1334679496]
I think I'm too much of a whiner baby to travel with your crew!


HA!  You'd have broke trail and we'd ski twice as far.  Sorry you couldn't join us Jamie!

Way to give 'er, Mike and friends!  Glad you could include at least one bridge and creek descent.

Beautiful country up there and great family destination too.  Nice post!

Awesome stuff! what does one have to do to get driven into holden?

author=Eckels link=topic=24528.msg103674#msg103674 date=1334784504]
Awesome stuff! what does one have to do to get driven into holden?


Starting in May, the Holden bus meets the LotL ferry daily. Until then, I believe it only meets M/W/F, in addition to some pre-arranged pickups.

Here is the website for Holden village: http://www.holdenvillage.org/

If you contact them, they are generally very helpful in helping to arrange and confirm transportation. They will want you to tell them when you plan on arriving and departing so they can reserve space on the bus for you. Very nice folks, and well worth the visit!

Nice work guys it was great chatting with you.

The people of Holden really are very nice and inviting whether you are religious or not.

author=Kyle Miller link=topic=24528.msg103682#msg103682 date=1334796755]
Nice work guys it was great chatting with you.

The people of Holden really are very nice and inviting whether you are religious or not.


As in they're deeply religious but don't hold it against you if you aren't? Never knew that holden had that angle to it (or really much at all about holden).

Hive Mind FTW:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Village,_Washington

author=samthaman link=topic=24528.msg103707#msg103707 date=1334849383]
As in they're deeply religious but don't hold it against you if you aren't? Never knew that holden had that angle to it (or really much at all about holden).


It is a lutheran church retreat. They struck me as the type of people who actually believe in the peace and love part of Christianity, as opposed to the type that are more obsessed with judgement and worrying about making sure gay people can't marry. When we arrived a couple of years ago the really nice guy who met us was wearing a shirt with a big fist that read "I'd rather be fighting the man." :) Everybody seemed more interested in hearing about our ski trip than preaching.

author=JoshK link=topic=24528.msg103717#msg103717 date=1334856095]
Everybody seemed more interested in hearing about our ski trip than preaching.


That was my experience too.  The place is great.  It's like being at summer camp complete with daily announcements, a bell to tell you meals are ready, quite hours, and rooms that are more like bunk rooms than a hotel.  Volunteers were genuinely nice people.  The community is Lutheran and I'm not, but I was not made to feel like an outsider.  I didn't participate in some of the daily rituals (grace, vespers) but no one seemed to notice or care.  I thoroughly enjoyed the village and the people, and so did my family.  I think most folks would.  The exception might be those who couldn't resist arguing or who are aggressively anti-religious. 

Awesome report Mike. What a great place!

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mikerolfs
2012-04-16 21:20:34