December 30, 2005, White Pass Sandy Lake Trail

We hit the trail just west of the White Pass ski area around 0900. We were the first car at the parking lot. Conditions were 28degf and moderate snow. The trail conditions were outstanding with approx. 8" of new snow. It was somewhat heavy but not terrible. Don and I toured up to the quarry about 1 mile from the car. We checked avalanche conditions and decided to head east toward Dear lake for some powder skiing. We broke trail the entire time to the tune of 750 vf. We decided once we hit the pass area to return to the bottom. The powder was outstanding and waist deep in some areas. It was an absolute blast. We were satisfied with our turns especially it being the first back country run of the year. We then proceeded up the sand lake trail road for approximately 2 miles setting tracks the entire way. On the return trip the snow had become sticky and we needed to cross country back to the quarry. We were able to alpine to the car form the quarry as we installed some +32degf yellow toko wax.

Overall, it was a great back country trip. A total of 4.5 miles, 1200 vf, and 5.5 hrs. The following is my summary from Motionbased via the Garmin 301 Foretrax GPS.  8)

http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/invitation/accept.mb?senderPk.pkValue=6497&unitSystemPkValue=2&episodePk.pkValue=383813&backgroundDatasourcePk.pkValue=20