May14, 2005, Deadwood Lakes

I just purchased a pair of G-Rides and figured to take them for a spin-rain or not. The weather looked iffy from the car. so I started out the day climbing and skiing the North Bowl of Yakima Peak below the main chute. Skiing is very nice the snow has consolidated, but is going fast. The weather turned to be very nice, black clouds looked to consume at a moments notice, but dissipated to a blue hue. My inner voice (the good one) urged me to move down the PCT and see what is still available at Deadwood Lakes. Surprisingly there was much less snow than Yakima Peak area. I toured to the North Slopes where a large amount of shale had risen above the snowpack. Looking for a fall line to the lakes I spotted that the North Chute just above the East lake was looking for customers. The Goats were eyeing me from the cliffs above-thankfully not showering me with stone gifts. I have had my eye on this beauty for some time, but never had an excuse to hit it-today was the day. The snowpack was very thin in spots at times I could hear the rocks tumbling under the snowpack as my legs churnned up to the base of the chute. As I ascended the chute the snow pack became more solid. There was 1 inch of soft snow on a pretty firm snowpack overall some area of deeper snow. There was a good continuous line of snappy spring corn 900vf to the lake. Luckily not punching through the softer snow covering the shale field. Had lunch at 5:30pm in the sun at the lake and skinned up and out to the trail.
This was a good time to hit this area there is evidence of a very large area of old avy debis  on the North faces and I would not do this chute unless there was very stable conditions. Even then I wished I had my helmet to climb up the chute due to possible rock releases. It is probably very close, if not the last serving of it in that area.
Ready to take the test plunge and standing on top of a tight 40 plus degree chute in new touring boots is a great experience. The boots performed very well!  ;D

I did not have a real camara to capture the moment, but the camera phone can maintain the essence.
So here they are....
http://community.webshots.com/album/346361114whrJMI?645