March 19, 2016, Jim Hill via Henry Creek
3/19/16
3061
2
Super fun day today on Jim Hill with sunny skies, big views, and preserved powder in the north-facing bowl. Temps got pretty warm with no wind up high. It was almost t-shirt weather on the summit ridge.
At around 8am we were the first to pull into the questionably legal shoulder parking in front of the BNSF plant at mile marker 71.2 on US2. We opted to stay on the east side of the creek for both the approach and exit - crossing the stream down low on the FS road. Travel on this side of the creek seems a bit easier due to less of a steep traverse and more open clear cuts. From the trailhead up to around 4800' we found a consistent 1-2cm breakable crust with soft old powder under the crust. Above 4800' the snow changed over to preserved powder with some wind buff up near the summit. The sun was mighty warm today - its hard to imagine that the powder will stick around much longer. Skiing was really good from the summit area (6700') down to around 5000' where things got sloppy. There were several other parties up today. No one got parking tickets that I saw (8 cars at least) in the area mentioned above, so I guess it must be ok.
Nice skin track from earlier this week.
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Ridiculous views into the Chiwaukum Range all the way to Mount Stuart, Mount Daniel, and a ton of stuff in between that I want to check out someday.
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Rock Mountain looking mighty fine.
Good times!
At around 8am we were the first to pull into the questionably legal shoulder parking in front of the BNSF plant at mile marker 71.2 on US2. We opted to stay on the east side of the creek for both the approach and exit - crossing the stream down low on the FS road. Travel on this side of the creek seems a bit easier due to less of a steep traverse and more open clear cuts. From the trailhead up to around 4800' we found a consistent 1-2cm breakable crust with soft old powder under the crust. Above 4800' the snow changed over to preserved powder with some wind buff up near the summit. The sun was mighty warm today - its hard to imagine that the powder will stick around much longer. Skiing was really good from the summit area (6700') down to around 5000' where things got sloppy. There were several other parties up today. No one got parking tickets that I saw (8 cars at least) in the area mentioned above, so I guess it must be ok.
Nice skin track from earlier this week.
Ridiculous views into the Chiwaukum Range all the way to Mount Stuart, Mount Daniel, and a ton of stuff in between that I want to check out someday.
Rock Mountain looking mighty fine.
Good times!
Any wet feet on the Henry Creek crossing? We stayed high and it was fine, but that low road looked interesting. Splitter day up there.
The creek is pretty shallow down there right now, only ankle deep. Our boots protected against wet feet fortunately.
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