Home > Trip Reports > April 9-10, 2016, Cascadian

April 9-10, 2016, Cascadian

4/9/16
4809
10
Posted by Charlie Hagedorn on 4/10/16 12:55pm
Fun jaunt to Stuart with Susan, revisiting an old trip I did with Will in 2009. Some things change, many remain the same.

Met only two others all weekend, who shared the false summit with us for a few minutes.

Logistics: Creek crossings were the biggest concern. We forded Bean Creek both ways, with quite a bit more water in the afternoons. Bridging on Turnpike Creek is hard to find, except near the head of the valley. Bridging of Ingalls Creek is nearly nonexistent; we crossed on a fading snowbridge, the only one we saw. Our summit-friends who came in from Esmerelda made something work with a log.

We were able to make the long traverse from the Beverly/Turnpike saddle to within ~1/4 mi of Bean Creek on the way out. Low elevation snow is fading fast. Beverly Creek road was ~1/2 skiable Sunday.

Snow: Soft. Corn 'o clock off the false summit was ~10-11 am . Upper Beverly Creek had several big cornice drops that weren't there Saturday.

It's a long way in, and a long way up, but the turns were good and the company wonderful.
Nice! Looks like the Teanaway season is on. Any more particulars re the road?

Teanaway road got snowy right at the Beverly Creek road, but was melting quickly.  We skinned up most of the Beverly Creek road on Saturday, removing skis for ~3 dirt patches and a log. Coming down Sunday, we removed skis ~6-7 times.

If you're a 4WDer, the only blocking log would be fairly quick work with a chainsaw (~12-14" ?), though one end is up in the air, making it not for novices.

I was surprised how close we could get to Bean Creek on the ski back down. Lotta debris/sticks atop the dwindling snowpack.  With a little more melt, continuous/enjoyable skiing will probably begin between 4400' and 4600'.

We parked at the same spot as Charlie and met him at the false summit, but had sleds to carry us up to the Esmerelda Trailhead. Those 6 miles of FS9737 were mostly snow covered with plenty of dirt patches and creek crossings, including a sketchy 5.8 bypass through the ditch around a 24" downed tree. No good for towing a skier given the innumerable short dirt patches.  Could easily sled right up to Longs Pass but we wanted that second descent on the way out so left the sled at Esmerelda. Longs Pass still has big cornices with recent large to very large activity, so I'd recommend heading east a quarter mile once reaching Longs Pass up over that first knob (6360') to find a mellower entrance down to Ingalls Creek. The campsite suggested in Volken's book was spot on involving only one creek crossing (on large log over Ingalls Creek) directly where he shows camp on the map. Overall we were pretty stoked on how few shenanigans there were on the approach, making it from Ellensburg to the base of the Cascadian in just under 5 hours. 

Great to meet you, penoyar!

After ~22 hours without encountering another person, it was a surprise to hear the hoot from far below, and again a surprise when you guys crested the summit.

Hope your descent and trip were fun indeed!

South side of Stu rules!  Did you ski Ulrich's Penoyar? 

....long way in ....I'll say! Earl Peak looks close enough for me. I'm too used to lift skiing to have that much approach juice in me. But on the other hand, several thousand feet of good corn😎😎😎

author=Good2Go link=topic=36269.msg147937#msg147937 date=1460504611]
South side of Stu rules!  Did you ski Ulrich's Penoyar? 


No it was our first time up there on skis and the Cascadian was in such perfect condition we couldn't justify the hazard of exploring Ulrich's. It looked ready to go though! Keep your speed up to clear the mandatory air on the lower cliff band.

Ha! Ulrichs is actually more bark than bite. Air is totally optional.

Any idea how far you could get up Stafford Creek?

Last week lots of mud one mile in. Enough to stop a non big truck. I'd guess you could get some further but wouldn't count on it.
Hopefully someone else has pushed past the mud in a 4 by and knows.

Reply to this TR

13138
april-9-10-2016-cascadian
Charlie Hagedorn
2016-04-10 19:55:37