May 19, 2012, Mt Washington (OR)
5/19/12
OR elsewhere
3305
5
We met up with a couple friends from Bend on Friday night to car camp at Santiam Pass, and then headed up Mt Washington on Saturday morning. The entrance road is clear to the junction at the north end of Big Lake, and snow is patchy from just off the road, becoming mostly continuous around 5,000 feet. We missed the PCT sign, but had no problem making our way southward through a mix of burned and live tree areas, eventually skinning up the North ridge. We also saw a party of five or so from Corvallis who went directly up the NW face and seemed to be making good time.
On the ridge, RonG and Wayne caught up to us (good to meet you guys, and thanks for the boot track Ron!), and they continued with boot crampons up the final steepest pitches to the upper saddle. They were camping overnight so may have some more good skiing to report. Unfortunately, the forecast for sunny skies and warming didn't really pan out, as overcast skies in the afternoon and a light wind kept the snow surface on the NW face a bit firmer than we had hoped. After some scouting of the snow, we decided to ski down from our perch at around 7,200 feet onto a hard steep surface. A couple hundred feet lower, it turned to softer corn, however, and made for easy turns all the way down to the bottom of the face. Mt Washington has some great terrain and feels more like a big mountain than its modest elevation suggests, so it definitely warrants return visits to check out the different routes!
On the ridge, RonG and Wayne caught up to us (good to meet you guys, and thanks for the boot track Ron!), and they continued with boot crampons up the final steepest pitches to the upper saddle. They were camping overnight so may have some more good skiing to report. Unfortunately, the forecast for sunny skies and warming didn't really pan out, as overcast skies in the afternoon and a light wind kept the snow surface on the NW face a bit firmer than we had hoped. After some scouting of the snow, we decided to ski down from our perch at around 7,200 feet onto a hard steep surface. A couple hundred feet lower, it turned to softer corn, however, and made for easy turns all the way down to the bottom of the face. Mt Washington has some great terrain and feels more like a big mountain than its modest elevation suggests, so it definitely warrants return visits to check out the different routes!
author=DG link=topic=24834.msg104948#msg104948 date=1337533767]
On the ridge, RonG and Wayne caught up to us (good to meet you guys, and thanks for the boot track Ron!), and they continued with boot crampons up the final steepest pitches to the upper saddle. They were camping overnight so may have some more good skiing to report. Unfortunately, the forecast for sunny skies and warming didn't really pan out, as overcast skies in the afternoon and a light wind kept the snow surface on the northeast face a bit firmer than we had hoped.
We ended up bugging out for home after a second descent on the N/NE aspect, the weather felt like it was not in our favor for more touring the next day. We skinned/booted back up to the perch you described where we dropped in an entrace to ski the NE aspect... another fun line with what looks like more ski lines to explore (still going through my photos). We got a closeup of the large slab avalanche and toe debris field that I guess must have slid the week prior... it was a large crown and a deep debris pile.
Great meeting up with you, sorry we disrupted your scrabble game the night before in the snowpark lodge :) Rong and I get bored talking to each other sometimes so we needed company ;D It was great meeting up with the Corvallis group at the saddle too, good company all day on the mountain and some great big open ski descents.
Wayne
author=Koda link=topic=24834.msg104952#msg104952 date=1337536945]
Great meeting up with you, sorry we disrupted your scrabble game the night before in the snowpark lodge :)
edit... I think it was your friends from Bend, who's game we disrupted... anyways, all good company.
Nice DG! Thanks for the conditions update and the previous invite. Wish I could have made it, but had family obligations over the weekend. Looks like the snow will be good for awhile yet.....
David, Good to meet you and your group as well as the six from Corvallis. I like image 1 of the north ridge up with climbers, and Hayrick and Hoodoo buttes, as well as 3 fingered Jack and Jefferson to the north. Adding a shot across the southwest bowl to Belknap and sisters. Awesome day.
Thanks Ron , we were all admiring your gumption to head right back up towards the west ridge after that first run - nice to see the view to the south!
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