Home > Trip Reports > February 15, 2015, Near Mission Ridge

February 15, 2015, Near Mission Ridge

2/15/15
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by mikerolfs on 2/15/15 11:36am
Jtack and I did a lift assisted tour today that was so good I'm inspired to share it.  We skied most of the day, from a little after 10AM, until closing time at the area.  We didn't even have to go to the truck for an apres beer since the lodge serves Bootjack.  Except for meeting an off-road group, we were alone all day.  Several times we followed both bobcat and coyote tracks.  We made 4 runs in the basin East of the ski area.   We found proper corn on the lower angle east facing slopes, and we found soft snow on the northern facing steeper shaded slopes.  Of course we also found a breakable crust everywhere between those two extremes, but the crust skied way better than the groomed runs in the area, so we were stoked.

Crazy lack of snow on the approach.   Looks like summer!
 

Here is the corn.  Corny corn served with a smile.  We were all whoops and hollars.




Our second run was through the trees and it was soft!

Jamie contemplates the first turn:


And shralps the rest!


Third run was crusty, but steeper and longer and funner.

Jamie:




Me:

first day on my new skis.  I liked them a lot.



After a bite, we headed up for one more. 

Jamie at the top of our last run:


In the background are the easy access slopes of Stemilt Basin.  These get skied often.  Today we went further in past where I'd been before.  It was fun to explore new terrain.


On normal ski years, we would ski down to about 5000', and then take a patrol cut traverse trail back to the ski area.  This year is so bony we can't even ski to that elevation, so to get back to the area, we headed back up to the high point, Wenatchee Mountain, where there is a microwave tower (affectionately called 'The Microwave' by locals).  We see snowmobiles up there frequently, but this was new.  The driver told us if you buy tabs, it is street legal and can go highway speeds.  And gets 30mpg.  I want one!

Driver told us this at the microwave tower while vehicle was running and passenger was warming his hands on the exhaust.

We skied down the cornice, past some tasty looking slopes (that are closed, so we let them be) and back into the area where I sideslipped down to the lodge for a beer.


This pic is from yesterday, after a similar but shorter tour.   It sums up how I'm feeling about our local ski area.  Mission is doing a great job keeping us happy even though the skiing in bounds is nasty. 
Mike thanks for keeping me of the couch! Just another example of if you don't go you don't know.  Great fun.

Sweet looking corn!

We toured around in the BC as students in a Northwest Mountain School AIARE 2 course on Saturday. First time there; fun place!  Snow and sun together are a fine combination.

In full profiles off the NE side of point 6780, we found quite the 130-cm snowpack layer cake. We discerned up to 25 layers, most in the upper half of the snowpack, with plenty of faceted forms and crusts. Snowpack tests ranged from moderate to hard, with sudden results in three-out-of-four pits at depths ranging from 10-20 cm to mid-pack to ground. Strong crusts helped us feel good about skiing nigh everywhere, but grumpy facets may reawaken with the next (?) dump.

The views from Mission Ridge are really good, and the terrain there looked really fun. Looking forward to getting back there again.

Imo the views are better than at Mt Baker, the skiing wasn't that nasty, and "side slipping to the lodge" is surely an exaggeration.  'Course by 10am on Sunday Todd and I were having beers in the lodge.  okay he didn't have any and I had one.  Looks like you guys had fun out there.

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2015-02-15 19:36:01