April 29, Navaho Peak
4/15/06
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
2276
1
Five of us with waxless skis headed to the Teanaway with hopes of better weather and firmer snow on the eastside. I've been wanting to due this tour ever since Charles posted a trip report two years ago. That year Brenda and I tried for it but lost our way and found Little Navaho instead. Last year no snow. We were able to drive only about a half mile up the Stafford Creek road before being blocked by snow - there's a bigger problem a couple hundred yards further with a 3 ft diameter tree across the road. We were able to ski much of the road with a couple ski carries across the longer clear sections, and tiptoeing with skis across the shorter sections. At the Stafford Creek traihead 1.5 miles or so up the road we made the fatal mistake of heading up the wrong side of the creek. Thinking we would be able to cross the creek to the trail further up, we refused to turn back to cross the bridge at the road, and continued up the wrong side. After fumbling around in brush and discontinuous snow, with a several hundred ft climb and decent back to the creek, we finally found a double log that we could cross. This was 1.5 to 2 hrs later. Once back on trail things were much more straight forward. We hit continuous snow at around 3800'. Finally gained the summit at around 3:00 PM. By this time the corn was less than ideal, but still firm and soft, a bit sticky though. Great skiing for at least 3000' back to the creek, and another 1000' of decent trail skiiing until we were forced to hike. Followed the trail to the road on the way out, with a couple minor fords because of high water forming channels onto the trail. Arrived back at the car at 7:00. Long day!
So that explains the tracks coming up from the creek! One of our party started to follow them on our way down yesterday. We missed the spot where you started skinning up steeply towards the summit, so did a slightly longer approach traversing under the summit and coming up on the Navaho Pass side. But we followed your more direct line down, for a fabulous run.
The snow is melting fast on the road, and we were able to ski less than half of it on our trip out yesterday. But plenty of snow up high. The corn was slightly grabby on the descent (or was that a lack of wax on the skis?), but not sloppy. Views from the summit were spectacular, from Mt. Stuart looming majestically above the Ingalls Creek drainage to Mount Adams peaking up to the south. We also saw what I think were recent black bear tracks near the summit.
The extra 1.5+ miles on road does add to the exertion level, but with conditions like yesterday, it was well worth it.
The snow is melting fast on the road, and we were able to ski less than half of it on our trip out yesterday. But plenty of snow up high. The corn was slightly grabby on the descent (or was that a lack of wax on the skis?), but not sloppy. Views from the summit were spectacular, from Mt. Stuart looming majestically above the Ingalls Creek drainage to Mount Adams peaking up to the south. We also saw what I think were recent black bear tracks near the summit.
The extra 1.5+ miles on road does add to the exertion level, but with conditions like yesterday, it was well worth it.
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