January 7, 2006, Delancey Ridge, North Cascades

The southwestern views alone from Delancey Ridge made the effort worthwhile:



As the remainder of our weekend crew slept in late, Jason W. and I rose only a few hours after bedding down and made tracks to the end of Highway 20 where the plowing ends at Silver Star creek.  

After pursuing several modes of inquiry and deliberating the results, we had decided to ski Delancey Ridge.  Rather than taking Burgdorfer's advice, however, we skinned west on the highway for a few hundred yards, then broke north up the ridge from that point.

Friday had been warm in the valley, and it hadn't frozen overnight where we stayed just outside of Winthrop.  So while I was relieved to hear the ice crunch under my feet as I exited the car, I wasn't entirely surprised to find the conditions heavy to start and heavier yet as the day progressed; with knee-deep concrete, it was slow going for the first couple of thousand feet.  In the vicinity of ~5500', however, things changed for the better.  The air was colder, the snow lighter, and we even had a sunbreak.  This good fortune continued to 6500', where we met the ridgetop.  Although we had early daydreams of dropping down the north face of the ridge into the Hardscrabble Creek basin, neither of us felt much for it once we reached the top.  Instead, we headed back after a short lunch.  

The initial 1000' feet were as good as it gets: knee-deep+ powder through well-spaced trees.  The middle section turned out to be the most challenging, as it was solar affected and grabby.  This section found me off my skis a number of times, which was displeasing to a degree.  The last 1000' were heavy, but more skiable, as it had remained in the valley fog throughout the day.

All this not to say it wasn't fun.  On the contrary, it was a beautiful day to get out.  In total we skied 3100' and were treated to spectacular early winter views of the North Cascades.  And we didn't even get rained on.