January, 13, 2012, ONP Klahhane Ridge

We caught sunrise at the parking lot and headed out to the north slopes of Klahhane today to find some crust free snow. After working our way along the ridge from the visitor center, we dropped down and across the Morse Creek drainage and joined up with someone's skin track (RandoBro?) from earlier this week. The skin track was much appreciated as we quickly gained over 1000ft in the midday sun. As expected, the north side of the ridge held some nice light snow. As an added bonus, the ski down the south face back to the road was in great condition contrary to some of the crusted faces we encountered on our way through the drainage. In fact, we had a good 8-10" on top of the solid crust below. All in all, it was a great day that exceeded expectations!