Home > Trip Reports > December 16, 2006, Yodelin, WA

December 16, 2006, Yodelin, WA

12/16/06
WA Stevens Pass
4019
8
Posted by Tophervw on 12/17/06 3:07am
Myself and Loom had an amazing day riding the old growth and glades at Yodelin yesterday.  Aside from the atypical start antics that I was doomed to, (left gear at home, forgotten contact lenses next to the sink etc.) we negotiated the void of electricity along 522 through Kenmore and Bothell and arrived at the pull out east of Stevens pass at about 9am.  though generally preferring an earlier start this worked to our favor as after breaking trail for a bit we were passed up by some speedy tele-folks.  The Slide alder has now mostly been entrapped, providing easy skinning  Topping out around 11ish it was my pleasure to give Loom first cracks at the amazing old growth that is Yodelin.  A second lap up top and break for some lunch, then out to far skiers left where we again met up with said tele-folks to descend to the car.  Some of the trees are tight to negotiate pushing us a little further right than would have been ideal but we were able to still make the final glade/former run to the car. 

Snow Info:

surface was 7-9 inches of light pow, under which was consolidated powder that would almost, some of, most of the time support our weight while skinning trail.  I was really happy with the stability of the snow, though we did not dig a pit for visual inspection hard ski cuts in the  steepest sections of old growth released nothing but minor sloughing.

Wicked good day. 
pics to follow courtesy of Loom
Most excellent. Good times as usual with you, my friend. I can't hardly accurately verbalize how sweet conditions and riding were yesterday. Even after getting up before lifts started at Alpy today and riding first tracks of my choice lower and off chair 2 (it was real good yeah) but no comparison to the long-ass runs we earned for ourselves.

We headed out here as well, on Sunday, with a new splitboarder and a new AT skier, testing their rigs.  Probably the best snow I've seen at Yodelin -- just fantastic.  No one had touched the "Christmas Tree" glad between the old growth stands, so we lapped that a few times and took another, longer run (by your track, probably) in the trees.  Skiing back down the front toward the car was tight, but we squeezed through and got fresh tracks on the steep line directly above the parking lot -- wonderful.

4 foot deep pit found 6-8 of soft, light powder (with a surface layer of 1/4" hoar frost crystals) over top of 3.5 feet of consolidated finger-hardness snow.  This broke up in big chunks while digging the pit, but no clean lines or layers were observed at all.  This was near the saddle, however, so isn't really representative of the wind-loaded areas farther down slope.

I kept saying we should take a quick lap on that glade, but Topher kept saying "nope, we should save that for the folks that come up tomorrow" ;-) lol

Chris and I did a few laps yesterday as well  :) . Still plenty of fresh lines to be had if you poke around a little! Definitely the best snow I've experienced at Yodelin.

author=loom link=topic=5784.msg24109#msg24109 date=1166460112]
I kept saying we should take a quick lap on that glade, but Topher kept saying "nope, we should save that for the folks that come up tomorrow" ;-) lol


Nice!  Good man, Chris -- thanks for leaving that for us.  I'm sure y'all were happy getting first tracks down through those trees...

Damn, Chris.  Now I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to get out with you this weekend.  Soon come.  Thanks for the update and good lookin' out for those would come after.  ;)

Respect,

~ Edub

author=loom link=topic=5784.msg24109#msg24109 date=1166460112]
I kept saying we should take a quick lap on that glade, but Topher kept saying "nope, we should save that for the folks that come up tomorrow" ;-) lol


Yeah ;) ;)
That is why we left those untouched...

author=Edub link=topic=5784.msg24123#msg24123 date=1166478813]
Damn, Chris.  Now I'm really sorry that I wasn't able to get out with you this weekend.  Soon come.  Thanks for the update and good lookin' out for those would come after.   ;)

Respect,

~ Edub


Word to every word there ... Yeah, next time give me more advance notice, Topher!    ;)

And welcome to the site, Edub.  Funny, I've often been called Edub by friends throughout the years.. tho for some reason when I started signing up for sites like this I never thought to use it.  Kewl..

-Ethan E.

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december-16-2006-yodelin-wa
Tophervw
2006-12-17 11:07:19