Home > Trip Reports > Jan 17, 2013, Deadwood Lakes

Jan 17, 2013, Deadwood Lakes

1/17/13
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Posted by gfunk on 1/19/13 10:44am
Beautiful, sunshiny day skiing Deadwood Lakes environs.  Left Crystal after loading first chair, dropped into Crystal Lakes Basin followed by an ascent of the southern ridge, which we followed east to a high knoll on the lower bench of Sheep Lake Basin.  From there the corned up snow on the south face skied great, with plenty of turns down to the Deadwood Lakes.  A boot pack on styrofoamy snow took us up a 45 degree couloir on the north face of the peak at the head of Deadwood.  Once atop this peak, which sits just north across the saddle from Yakima (anyone know the name of this one), the south east run down and across 410 looked tempting, but with a ski cut a fairly substantial wet loose slide ran full length entraining as it increased mass on descent.  We then opted for the shaded area and dropped back into Deadwood, finding a break in the massive cornice that fenced in the lower face to the west of the peak that is peppered with tiny trees.  Some pow on wind buff was enjoyed.  The day was topped off with an exit out Big Bertha and a fast push out.  Good fun!
Cool trip.  Looks like the peakbagging crowd calls that mountain "Deadwood" and the one with the long sw slope run, that you skied first, "Chinook".  Thanks for the TR, always wanted to ski that.
http://www.peakbagger.com/peak.aspx?pid=25555

Is Big Berth the long track that comes off Crystal Lookout and crosses 410 and the NPS White River Road?

I wanted to comment this morning but was too busy  loading car with skis.
Hey ,A very nice report on a cool area that often gets bypassed.
Ditto on the Chinook peak name but that's the first Ive heard it called Deadwood peak .
Makes sense.

Yeah, Big Bertha is the massive avy path that runs down the west of Crystal Peak. It hits 410 less than one mile south of the Mather Memorial fork.

author=gfunk link=topic=27092.msg114338#msg114338 date=1358919476]
Yeah, Big Bertha is the massive avy path that runs down the west of Crystal Peak. It hits 410 less than one mile south of the Mather Memorial fork.


Hello again,
Another question for you as I am pretty unfamiliar with that area:
Is there a gully break in the west trending ridge off the top of Chinook Peak 6904' that affords a north facing line back to the Crystal Lakes?Probably it can be seen from Silver king so I am guesssing it would not be a secret.
Thanks,
John

Hi John,
Yes, there are two large north facing bowls that you can ski back into Crystal Lakes basin.  Locals know them as smoke-a-bowl and pack-a-bowl, with pretty heady references.  Another excellent circuit back is to go to the high point northeast of Chinook to access Sheep Lake couloir, putting you in Sheep Lake basin.  From here skin over the west ridge to Crystal Lakes or northeast to Sourdough Gap and into Morse Creek.  Here's a shot of that coully:

author=gfunk link=topic=27092.msg114871#msg114871 date=1359673212]
Hi John,
Yes, there are two large north facing bowls that you can ski back into Crystal Lakes basin.  Locals know them as smoke-a-bowl and pack-a-bowl, with pretty heady references.  Another excellent circuit back is to go to the high point northeast of Chinook to access Sheep Lake couloir, putting you in Sheep Lake basin.  From here skin over the west ridge to Crystal Lakes or northeast to Sourdough Gap and into Morse Creek.  Here's a shot of that coully:


Thanks!  Looks like lots of fun circuit tours to be had indeed!  Now if I could only get some folks interested in doing the drive!
Appreciated,
John

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jan-17-2013-deadwood-lakes
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2013-01-19 18:44:49