Home > Trip Reports > Feb 22, 2018, NCHeli-assisted Cedar Creek

Feb 22, 2018, NCHeli-assisted Cedar Creek

2/22/18
17539
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Posted by mikerolfs on 2/24/18 11:19am
I took the easy way up to the ridge above Cedar Creek, which is one drainage East of the drainage you use to exit the classic "Birthday Tour" at Washington Pass. Taking the helicopter was SO WORTH IT! The touring was just like any other day of touring, but it started with a down, and ended with the best views imaginable on the flight back. I was with a group I didn't know, which was a fun change from my normal routine. To take advantage of this easy-up, you "have" to ski with a guide. This was a fun way to tour and I like to do it once a year or so. I learned a couple of new tricks, as I always do with a guide. It was a great day in a great drainage with sun and good company. Awesome.

Patrick from the Goats Beard. This is his first year skiing!


Beautiful basin!
https://i.imgur.com/19bkuAh.jpg" />

Blue sky!
https://i.imgur.com/OiLKBXt.jpg" />

My favorite guide
https://i.imgur.com/MSV218c.jpg" />

And a delux ride!
Looks like a stellar outing. Larry is a great guy/guide, eh? Spent 6 nights/7days in the  Ortler Alps with him.

author=Jim Oker link=topic=39758.msg160069#msg160069 date=1519530869]
Looks like a stellar outing. Larry is a great guy/guide, eh? Spent 6 nights/7days in the  Ortler Alps with him.


He's great. I bet that was a fun trip. Every time I'm with Larry I have a good time.

It was. I recommend it to anyone who wants to check out some Alps touring - great food AND terrain. And these guys have a nice approach, including spending multiple nights at a couple of the  huts instead of doing an end-to-end traverse,  and using an access point that apparently has less avy issues than a few of the others in the range.

Last saw Larry while heading up  for a late-in-day hike up  to Blue  Lake last fall, as he was heading  down from being "guided" as part of an exam he was conducting for  a prospective  guide.  He gave  me some  great (and free!! :-) ) tips on good car camping options for  that evening.


author=Heli-Free North Cascades link=topic=39758.msg160077#msg160077 date=1519597384]
I like the photo of the guide wearing ear protection. That is smart. Helicopters can produce hearing damaging noise even on a fly by up to 300m away. Wow, I just noticed that the word hearing has the word ear in it.

By the way a friend informs me he scrambles around that area in the summer and it looks like a garbage dump similar to what under a ski area chairlift  looks like in the summer.

You clients might want to consider a clean up party in the summer. I think that would be a positive step towards mitigating some of the harm that form of recreation creates.


Anyway, Seems like this trip report should be in the Lift service section here at TAY.

Carry on.


Wow - You can really be a downer! Mike puts out more long backcountry day's than almost anyone on here, and you have to give him shit because a friend “told” you he scrambles in that area in the summer and there is litter. You should hear yourself! What's that got to do with Mike taking a Heli once a year? I'm sure Mike didn't  litter....if you have so much time on your hands you can bitch about one guys heil drop - you should get up  there and pickup the garbage that might be there!

There is a long history of this guy (who is presumably the same person as freeski) hijacking threads to poopoo NC Heli. He might once have had a good point regarding an incident he was involved with the company. But now he is a broken record that will take a dump on any thread that mentions NC Heli. So much so that he created another username just for this.

that dude sucks...great pictures...

We need more photos of what we love where we live.  And when there's a section on the people, that picture of Mike Rolfs and Larry Goldie should be the face page.

That looks like a great time!!!


I hope you were porpoising the whole time on the banana boat skis! Great photos and post.

Yeah give us a review of this longboards!

author=RonL link=topic=39758.msg160163#msg160163 date=1519850251">
Yeah give us a review of this longboards!


Those are home-made in my garage - 191 x 142. They tour way better than you'd think and are super fun to ski on. We pretend to be a legit ski manufacturer, but really I just make skis for friends and family. I'm up to about 60 pairs. coopskis.com. The only problem with a ski this fat is finding a crampon that fits it.

One of my best ever tours early in my career was heli-touring up there! Silver Star and Big Kangaroo. Such a great little slice of the North Cascades. I'll have to get back there, thanks!

I am green like the color of those coop skis.  As in, with envy.

I bet they are a blast in snow like that. I still shop the bargain bins out of habit tho. Let me know if you have blem or irregular pile, any last year Demos?

At what point are we going to try and just put some Dynafit bindings on two snowboards and call it good!

This sounds like a good goof at the next pond skim now that I've thought about it!

Impressive skis, Mike R, you can call yourself a legit manufacturer in my book.

Love the smiles in the pictures, they say to all.

Nice report Mike! And great photos as always. Gets me psyched for the upcoming Spring touring season. And I like your website as well. I talked with a friend at the climbing gym recently who is having some Coop skis made for him.  Who did the graphics on the Colchuck's?  Pretty funky!

author=Heli-Free North Cascades link=topic=39758.msg160077#msg160077 date=1519597384]
Anyway, Seems like this trip report should be in the Lift service section here at TAY.


Seems like they did some uphill skiing... Should we put any tour that uses snowmobiles to access terrain in the lift served section? What if I drive to the trail-head in my car?


Sweet photos - looks like a beautiful day out with stellar snow! Your skis and website look awesome. Widest I have ever skied is 125mm, can't imagine 142mm!


nwhikers.net instituted a "no spray zone"  in  their trip reports  section years ago. Seems like a good idea. Forces people who  have issues that  get triggered by any given TR to take that to  a separate thread, and helps ensure that people aren't discouraged from posting  TRs to  the site. Just an idea the new side admins/mods might ponder...

Looks like a nice tour. I'll hate on that ship all day when they're lapping the sled accessed stuff, especially when it drops in on the same basin I'm skiing and it's too late to change locations or when they make a mogul field out of silver star in the spring.

The heli flying twice into cedar creek is pretty much the exact opposite of that. It's flying to a more difficult to access by sled/foot zone, that doesn't eat much jet fuel and won't be buzzing by me all day.

Gotta pick your battles...

I don't think they want you talking about helicopters....drones appears to be ok...

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feb-22-2018-ncheli-assisted-cedar-creek
mikerolfs
2018-02-24 19:19:00