Feb 02, 2008, Satus Pass Ski Area
2/2/08
4576
1
I guess the weather is creating mostly eastern washington trip reports so far! It's good to see some other hwy 97 skiers.
I made it up to Satus pass yesterday with some difficulty. The road was treacherous with truckers all over the place and no real way to get off the highway. Luckily a plow had made a turn-around at the top. I pulled off and then shoveled out a parking spot for myself to stay out of their way. Oddly, there were fresh snowmobile tracks heading up the mountain, but no truck/trailer? How did they get there? No matter, I was grateful for the trail.
I found the snowmobilers a short ways up the trail bogged down and putting on snowshoes. They were with the Yakima tribe doing a monthly snowpack survey. Cool job if you ask me.
It was tough going with the most fresh snow I have seen in my 6 years of skiing the Simcoes. I couldn't find the bottom with my ski pole at max extension. I decided to ski the old ski area hill for safety and stamina reasons. Here's a picture of one of the old riblets. There was some hand writing on some of the old hardware saying 1963!
The skiing was nothing to brag about. Pretty heavy snow at this elevation, but I got in some turns. On the way out the snow was a bit too heavy to glide back down the trail so I un-hooked my heel and did a XC kick and glide. Does anybody else do this? It's fun. Just need a little more stickyness as the kick tends to slip out unless you are very gentle. I was thinking of taking a 3-4 inch section of old skins and sticking it in the "wax pocket" for kick and glide Randonee skiing. Of course, I could use some sticky wax, but I don't want to clean that off my skis every time.
I made it up to Satus pass yesterday with some difficulty. The road was treacherous with truckers all over the place and no real way to get off the highway. Luckily a plow had made a turn-around at the top. I pulled off and then shoveled out a parking spot for myself to stay out of their way. Oddly, there were fresh snowmobile tracks heading up the mountain, but no truck/trailer? How did they get there? No matter, I was grateful for the trail.
I found the snowmobilers a short ways up the trail bogged down and putting on snowshoes. They were with the Yakima tribe doing a monthly snowpack survey. Cool job if you ask me.
It was tough going with the most fresh snow I have seen in my 6 years of skiing the Simcoes. I couldn't find the bottom with my ski pole at max extension. I decided to ski the old ski area hill for safety and stamina reasons. Here's a picture of one of the old riblets. There was some hand writing on some of the old hardware saying 1963!
The skiing was nothing to brag about. Pretty heavy snow at this elevation, but I got in some turns. On the way out the snow was a bit too heavy to glide back down the trail so I un-hooked my heel and did a XC kick and glide. Does anybody else do this? It's fun. Just need a little more stickyness as the kick tends to slip out unless you are very gentle. I was thinking of taking a 3-4 inch section of old skins and sticking it in the "wax pocket" for kick and glide Randonee skiing. Of course, I could use some sticky wax, but I don't want to clean that off my skis every time.
Cool report! Just last week I learned that Satus Pass ski area existed while perusing Lost Ski Areas of Washington.
One common trick for a good glide set up for flats or low angle sticky trails is to take an old skin and cut it in half lengthwise, then attach clips for each half skin to go down the center of each ski. For fat skins, you may need to split in half again to get the desired glide. I any case, it's fairly light and doesn't take up much space in your pack.
One common trick for a good glide set up for flats or low angle sticky trails is to take an old skin and cut it in half lengthwise, then attach clips for each half skin to go down the center of each ski. For fat skins, you may need to split in half again to get the desired glide. I any case, it's fairly light and doesn't take up much space in your pack.
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