March 9,10,11  2005, Stafford Creek, Little Navaho

After hearing the news that the Teanaway road was opened last Saturday I thought I would try the Stafford Creek drainage this week. Last week was the end of the season for Sasse. By the way, the Wenatchee NF website is unfortunately not kept that up to date. Much better to call the RD office and ask about road closures and road conditions.

The road up Stafford Creek past the junction progresses from patches of ice to solid ice at the Stafford Creek TH. Although I was able to drive to the TH in the early Wednesday morning, there was no place to park that I thought I could get out of in the heat of the afternoon. I found a bare spot about 0.4 mi back from the TH instead. Even so, driving out Friday on the ice, often covered with water was rather dicey, not to mention the mud trap at the logging site past Standup Creek.

I think the best way to describe the trip is backpacking with skis, instead of ski camping. Wednesday I hiked/skied in to a campsite near "Little Navaho Creek". Tough going compared to previous years because of patchy soft snow lower down. I was able to put the skis on at 4300 feet, but only for a while. Light drizzle in the afternoon, then clearing by 7 P.M. Low for the night was 37 degrees. Thursday morning I started up the rib to the saddle between Navaho and Little Navaho, hoping to find snow. As I suspected, I could put the skis on at about 5300 feet. The snow however was less than ideal.  It was just not cold enough at night to produce a good crust; only 1/2 to 3/4 inch thick, and below that, rather light unconsolidated snow. Got to the top of Little Navaho a little before 9:00 am but I made the mistake of sitting around for a while in the sun. I did get a few nice turns off the top, but that's it. Most of the time the crust would not support the skis, the result being railroad snow conditions. The lack of snow on the surrounding terrain was quite impressive. There was essentially no snow on any slope with significant sun exposure. Even the east face of Earl Peak had a lot of rocks popping out. It still looked skiable, but there was evidence of fresh wet snow slides, and at least when I was there it would have been the same railroad snow by the time I could get to the top.

Friday I explored over by "Red Rock" and up towards Earl. I did find a few nice glades with enough of a freeze to support my weight, and those were fun. I just didn't like the rather abrupt transition to insufficient freeze, which would occur with little warning.   :) In general, I think that what's left of the snowpack I found is rather typical for northerly exposures in mid-March, and needs another month of consolidation for great spring skiing. But it won't last a month. Oh well, I'll take what I can get.  :)

Larry