Home > Trip Reports > Feb 28, 2014, White Pass Tinkel Tour

Feb 28, 2014, White Pass Tinkel Tour

2/28/14
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
6699
5
Posted by jtack on 3/4/14 2:55am
Several months ago a plan had been hatched to rent a condo at White Pass and use up some of the White Pass Mission Ridge shared days.  It was just luck that we were right smack dab in the middle of White Passes winter festival, to include a beautiful collection of snow sculptures, with a Wizard of OZ theme.





The OZ entourage



and Toto



A torch lite parade



Fireworks (long and beautiful)



All in a room with a view!



The skiing at the resort was not all that good, kinda loud, but the food at the upper lodge was hart stopping good.  Tater tots smothered with sausage gravy, onions, and jalapenos, and the people that work there are the nicest.  Another cool aspect of the upper lodge is that the septic system is all composted.

It had been quite warm, and there was a solid 1/4 inch crust on the snow but we were still hot to go for a short tour, just to see what we could find.  The Tinkle tour, from the sound the breaking crust made skittering down the slope.  Part of the group was hard pressed to see the fun in skiing 1/4 inch breakable crust so they decided to go Nordic skiing on the great trails right out the door of the condo.  The day was warming, and traveling in the timber almost seemed like a kamikaze mission with the potential for tree bombs.  Just a short skin from the parking lot we popped out onto some south facing open slopes that were just getting warm enough to melt the crust a little, and entice us up for a try, to all our surprise it was really fun, no really it was fun (we had a hard time convincing the crew that did not come).  And so we whooped and hollered and had a silly fun time skiing six inch glop. 











This is what a drive by at 30 mph looks like gone wrong!







A grand day!





Except for the ski out, back to 1/4 breakable crust on 35 degree slope, yikes the double entendre tinkle tour! 

The fun masters video:  https://vimeo.com/88059174


Wow, those snow sculptures are amazing. Maybe that needs to be my new hobby for horrid breakable crust days.

author=JoshK link=topic=31013.msg129991#msg129991 date=1393966649]
Wow, those snow sculptures are amazing.


Josh, we were told that the castle building started on Valentine's day, Feb 14.  The crew was still going on Thursday when we arrived.  I'd guess there were 12 people working on that castle with more than one chain saw and walls being built by stomping snow into concrete wall forms. 

I was impressed by how much good skiing there is to be had right around the ski area.  White Pass would be a great home area.  What a blast.

Here is my favorite photo of the weekend.  Jamie oohing and awing at the fireworks from inside the condo.

Very cool. I really need to make it down to White Pass one day. I've always wanted to check it out, and it seems like a neat, less mainstream area. Is the sculpture building a yearly event? If so, I would probably time a visit to coincide with that! Though I imagine it must be somewhat sad when a warm rain event finally occurs and they begin to degrade. Then again, doing it all over next time is half the fun, like a sandcastle on the beach.

A little late to the game with these, but I just finally got the photos off my camera.  Great trip and that corn harvest turned out to be a real treat!  Great Video Mike!








How about that, a secret powder stash right above the hiway and across the street from the resort base area, who would have figured, you should check out the bc of the GRW off the top of chair 6 at 6700 ft el.  Be glad to show you around as I am always in need of hiking partners.

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feb-28-2014-white-pass-tinkel-tour
jtack
2014-03-04 10:55:08