June 11, 2012, Park Butte

Paul and I were lucky to ski Park Butte on a very pretty day with no snowmobiles. The road was closed with an official looking sign and a big pile of snow about a half mile from the trail head. Unfortunately, the snow was inconsistent for about the first quarter mile so we had to do some ski carrying. There isn't much snow at the trailhead, so we may be very close to (or at) the official "do not use a snowmobile" point. We saw plenty of snowmobile and boot tracks most of the way up.

After cruising through Schriebers Meadow (a great Nordic destination in itself if the sleds aren't there) we made our way up the usual winter route (up Rocky Creek). We decided to mix things up this time and go up the creek valley much farther than usual. This probably would have worked fine if we just kept going and went up Railroad Grade. However, we wanted to go to Park Butte and didn't feel like doing both, so we had to do a bit of backtracking to avoid the cornices. Unfortunately, we should have backtracked even further, as we ended up doing a very tough dirt scramble for about ten feet. It wasn't that far, or that steep, but the dirt and rocks were all loose, which made it extremely difficult to make our way up (ice axes would have made it much easier).

Once done with that dirty little mess, we were in Nordic wonderland. We cruised through Morovitz Meadow and basically followed the summer trail up to the lookout. Going down was fun and easy. It requires a bit of flat or moderate uphill, but the snow was fast. Having waxless skis really makes it easy on this type of trip. The snow was a bit grabby on the toughest part (next to Rocky Creek) but it really wasn't that bad.