Home > Trip Reports > Kettle River Range - Jan 4-7, 2007

Kettle River Range - Jan 4-7, 2007

1/4/07
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Posted by Spin Fast on 1/9/07 2:37am
In the northeastern corner of Washington there is a small range of mountains named after a tributary of the Columbia River. The potential for some great backcountry skiing exists here...if the conditions permit. Unlike its distant relatives to the west, the Kettle River Range receives much less precipitation than the Cascades. That didn't deter four of us from heading in for a couple days of what would turn out to be some fantastic skiing.

In 1988 a massive wildfire scorched over 20,000 acres here, making for some would lead us to our shelter for the next couple days. That evening, a . We quickly realized that sometimes things just go right and today was a couple times but eventually I think he , and for now, in the year 2007, bid adios to a
Nice to see a report from an unusual location in Washington. Thanks!

It looks beautiful over there.  Thanks for the report and the very nice photos.

Interesting report and nice photos.  Thanks!

I’m curious about the hut you labeled “home sweet home.”  Is that available to the public?  (If you’d rather keep that information to yourself, I completely understand.)

I’m a big fan of backcountry huts that can be used for winter activities, and there are not too many available in WA, that I know of.

Thanks again.

Good God that is beautiful country!  At 5,576 ft. a great spot.  What is the travel time to that area? 6 hrs + from the seattle area?  any other terrain shots?

and quite well documented, is that photographer available for hire?

Way to get IT! ;D

VERY cool!    A bunch of us did three days of great mountain biking over there last summer, some of it perhaps on the exact same slopes you skied.  Kettle Crest trail, it's called.

If I recall, the drive was 7+ hours, Topher... not the kinda thing you do every single year... unless of course you did it in conjunction with trips to see (but then escape from) the in-laws...  ;)

     I'll spill the beans, sort of.  It's not super secret; I learned of this in BC and Couloir, and my family and I had a great short trip in April 2005. 
     It's the Snow Peaks Shelter, south of Sherman Pass on Route 20 in Colville National Forest.  7+ hours, access through Republic or Kettle Falls.  Contact the Republic Ranger District, Colville National Forest, Republic, WA for info.  The killer is that reservations are by lottery and done for an entire calendar year in early December of the previous autumn.  The hut sleeps 6 in cramped conditions, $30/night.  It may be available for weeknights this season still.
     We got res. in 2005 during the week, then failed to get any for 2006 during holiday weekends.  Got 3 weeknights coming up in April. ;D

author=Tophervw link=topic=5972.msg24748#msg24748 date=1168385691]
is that photographer available for hire?


Always for hire and very cheap! I'll exchange priceless photographs for trips  :D

Ian

Like Telemack said it's not necessarily a secret, although 1) either not many know about it or 2) it's hard to get the hut on the weekend. We didn't see anyone out there and according to the log, there haven't been many skiers up there anytime recently.

Snow Peak Shelter - it sleeps four comfortably, five would be tight, six...no thanks. It's fully stocked, including cots! The physical location of the hut doesn't make much sense as it sits right on a very windy saddle between two peaks. That being said, in 20 minutes you can be making turns off 7000 ft Snow Peak, which holds some really fun, albeit not crazy, 1000 ft runs.

I live in Leavenworth so it was about a 4-hr drive. It's a 3-4 mile skin in from Sherman Pass, taking about 3 hours with fully loaded packs. It would be a difficult place to find in the dark or with really nasty weather, but it's basically a flat skin.

It's a lottery system and I had two buddies apply for it, one got it.

Overall a cool place to check out for some different terrain. Like I said on my site - www.mackieimages.com - the snowpack is MUCH shallower than the Cascades. But if you time it right, it's a trip to remember.

Ian

Nice images. You do a good job :)

Hi Ian!  Beautiful photos.

Let's go climb Hard Mox this summer.  OOPS, wrong Ian.

The coldest day of skiing I've ever done was somewhere around there. I have some crazy black and white shots I took for photography class probably 10 years ago. We were climbing frozen trees. It was wild looking stuff. I'll have to dig those up sometime.

Nice.  I've always wanted to get over to that area.

Glad I'm not there this weekend - predicted lows of -4 to -14 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ian

Drove through there once on the way back from something, and thought we'd do a day of skiing.  But there was only 1 foot of snowpack (it was New Years), and we couldn't see any appealing terrain from the pass (just dense trees everywhere...)

Looks nice in your pics though...

Hi Ian,

Fantastic pics - seriously.  Jason told me you had prime conditions, but you really made it sing.  What I hadn't realized is that you were on Sherman Pass.  I remember that article in Couloir and thinking at the time I should put that on my to-do list.  Perhaps I'll have to revisit the idea...

-s

Nice report and photos.  I've had Sherman Pass on my list for a few years but the conditions were not good during my last return trip from Red and Whitewater.  We plan to swing by on the Zap & Jill, Shell 2 for 1 Grand Tour in February.  :)

It's a great area.  I've headed up there for New Years the last couple years.   There was a large group of about 8-10 people this year that laid down a nice track to the top of Sherman Peak on Sunday.
We came through on Monday and it was a quick skin to the top.   We only saw 3 other people the whole day.

I still haven't gotten going early enough to do both Snow and Sherman Peaks, but maybe later this year (or next year).

As Telemack said, there was an article in Backcountry about 3-4 years ago about touring around Sherman Pass.  It's not a secret spot, but it's remote enough that I'm always surprised if I see anyone else.

Great report and pics!  I'm stoked to go back!


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2007-01-09 10:37:26