June 8-9, 2013-Barrett Spur

Did an overnighter into Barrett Spur.  Got to the trail head about 11:30AM and took our time getting to Elk Cove.  One upside of the Dollar Lake fire is that you have a crazy good view of Hood all the way up.  Spent the evening taking pictures, searching for a water source and enjoying the wicked sunset.  The wind howled all night making sleep intermittent at best.  Got on the trail about 8AM and headed up to the spur via the Timberline Trail past Dollar Lake.  This turned out to be a mistake, as the side hilling to Dollar was less than fun.  We gained the ridge and shortly switched over to booting where we were met by a constant wind all the way to the saddle. Took a break at the saddle and had discussion about skiing off the top.  In the end, we decided on mellower terrain, but I did take a quick climb up to 7700 feet to get a look at the east facing chutes.  They're pretty steep and I bet a lot of fun with more coverage.  I scrambled back down and met my partner where we clicked in and made our descent from the saddle.  2000 vertical feet of creamy corn put a huge smile on our faces.  We resupplied on water at the Cove and headed back up to the ridge straight from Elk Creek.  Thanks to the party of four who put in a solid skin track.  After another nice descent from the ridge, my partner headed to camp for a nap and I headed up the east side of the Spur to get a closer look at the Lower Coe.  On the way back I toured up just under the glide cracks for a final descent back to camp.  I got back to camp just in time to watch the party of four do a solid job of negotiating the glide cracks. Ate a late lunch, packed up our stuff and headed out.  Wrapped the whole thing up with dinner and beer at the brewery in Parkdale.  Great trip!