March 12, 2006, Rockdale Powerlines

We've all looked up at this perfect run on our way up to Snoq. Pass. It's the nice, straight swath cut through the trees between Denny Creek and the Pass summit proper, on the south side of the road.I have been eyeing this line since 1997, and Lara has been since 2000, so we planned a few weeks ago to hit it today. Friend Alex joined us, and was the lead skier down the trail once we reached the top. Generally speaking, this run is melted out before this time, but since our Ullr blessing this season is still more than ample, we were able to ski all the way to I-90.

We started at the base of Silver Fir chair, and followed the nordic trail out to where we could see the powerline leading to the in-run. It was a nice, quiet friendly tour up, and we made it to top of run in about 1 hour. Finding our way from the true top of the run took a few minutes, and then we got into about 750' vert of nice soft snow. After that, the sun-affect crust began to increase, until the last 300' of vert were very huffy-puffy. We came out at the top of the Iron Horse tunnel leading through the mountain out to Hyak, and eventually picked our way down to Rockdale Creek. We did one minor creek ford, and popped out to the freeway in time to greet many surprised drivers. The looks on their faces said, "You've got skis, but you're not hitching a ride to the Pass? Like, what's up??!"

I've been sop busy thiis winter that the touring has been non-existant since October. Lots of in-bounds turns. However, now that # 101 is REALLY in the books, and my real season has begun, I'm itchin' to get to all of the lines on my list!  HAPPY TRACKS TO ALL....