Home > Trip Reports > December 28, 2013, North Cascades Environment

December 28, 2013, North Cascades Environment

12/28/13
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Posted by lrudholm on 12/30/13 2:40pm
Starting elevation about 2,200 ft. High point about 6,200 ft.

Unskiable snow below 4,200 ft. Crust started to disappear about 5k. :) Yummy! The crust wasn't event that bad. Tour was worth the views alone.

Anyways, snow is doing pretty good up high, however plan your approach route carefully or you my end up waste deep in slide alder. We just need a good storm or two to cover up that nasty alder for game time.

We called this ski run, Bitter Reality.


Bens view for well over an hour.


The views alone were worth the trip.


But this is what we came for.....


Above photographs by Ben Starkey

Below are a few of mine.
Looks "fun"

Thanks for the report!

Stop posting about my Secret Stash©™!!!

Anyway, glad to see that you guys found some good snow (way) up there.



author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=30157.msg126286#msg126286 date=1388475694]
Stop posting about my Secret Stash©™!!!

Anyway, glad to see that you guys found some good snow (way) up there.





Does anyone have GPS coordinates for that tour? :)

looks like fun!

Approach like that ... the secret is safe.

Thats F*&%ing HILARIOUS!

Looks like a gem of day!  Thanks for the snowpack update.

PS. I hope Volken's new book finally lists this tour.  It's gonna be the new slot! ;)

I need to live closer to the north cascades!  To me, the views up there are worth any amount of suffering… which is usually not so bad and the rewards are tremendous

@AMAR

I found it first buddy ;)

For everyone else......
If you go, be careful you can ski it in blower pow from top to bottom instantly becoming an addict. Then suddenly you'll find yourself on your knees and elbows muttering and cursing in an endless thicket of alder.

What a great place; only seen it in April.

Nothing like a good slider alder "meadow" for skiing.

Should have borrowed a saw from NC Heli.

Lets see how many slide alder jokes we can make before the next avy cycle.  :)

It's always nice to have a little quality Alder time to calm the nerves.

"I don't always mix with Alders, but when I do I prefer the mix to be Devil's Club."

My friend Scott Presho introduced me to Alders and Devil's Club many years ago. He paid the price that day by letting a dormant Devil's Club head slip off his boot and lodge in his forehead.

The alderman would make a good username ... Or lame superhero

thanks for writing that up, leyland!  despite all the hiking and shwacking, it was still a great day.  "a bad day in a slide alder thicket is still better than a good day at work".  and yeah, there was some devil's club in there, too.  fortunately, i managed to avoid that thorny brand of "face shots"!

one of my favorite photos of the day:

author=bs. link=topic=30157.msg126401#msg126401 date=1388695654]
..."a bad day in a slide alder thicket is still better than a good day at work". 


nice.

Something about that photo breaks my brain a bit....like the camera shifted during the exposure.

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2013-12-30 22:40:57