April 16-17, 2008, Sasse Ridge

This trip was probably my last trip to Sasse Ridge for this ski season. It's time to start on my usual spring locations, but it has been a good season so far - 23 ski camping trips - mostly to the Cle Elum valley, with some exceptional skiing. There is still plenty of snow on Sasse Ridge however for those who want to do a spring trip to Jolly. There is about a foot of new snow [edit: opps should read was about a foot of snow on valley floor, snowpack model says 6 new in past week as of this morning], 80% coverage on the valley floor, building rapidly as you go up. Rotten snow season got delayed by all the late snow, but it's here now. Large grains, not yet sintered, and if there is no freeze overnight by early afternoon travel would be very slow.

Jane and I were lucky however. There was no freeze overnight when we skied in, but the skies cleared in the evening and the temp dropped to ~26 overnight. The result was a 3 inch freeze at 3800 feet, which lasted till we skied out from 1 to 2 pm. On the way down we were lucky to see a fresh set of cougar tracks. See the pic below.

Nancy at the Ranger Station said that last year the big male that occupied the area was killed trying to cross I-5, and there are reports that a new male may be moving in. Or it may have been the resident female of the area, whose name I forget. Much is known about the cougars in the area thanks to a 6 year study, just concluded, involving tracking the animals with GPS tracking collars. What was discovered is quite amazing.

Larry