 Turns-All-Year backcountry skiing in the Pacific NorthwestBackcountry Skiing and Snowboarding Trip Reports |
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| This old version of Trip Reports is no longer being updated. It is being kept as an archive of ~340 backcountry skiing trip reports posted from April 2001 through August 2002. The new version Trip Reports is where new trip reports are currently being posted; it also has copies of the ~340 older trip reports and is searchable. |
| June 2001 Trip Reports |
June 30-July 1, 2001 Mt. Adams: "This was a Mountaineers outing which I led. Four of us drove via Randle (FS 23) to Trout Lake. At the Ranger Station we completed six forms, four Volcano Passes ($15 apiece, required above 7000'), a Wilderness Permit, and a Climbing Registration. We car camped Saturday night at Morrison Creek (this curiously was free). We started from Timberline at 6:30 am Sunday (the last 3 miles of the road are bad, as usual. Apparently none of the Volcano Pass receipts have been applied to the access road). We booted all of it except for the stretch from the top of the Crescent (pocket) Glacier to the Lunch Counter. This part we skinned. Above the Lunch Counter was a cold wind. Conditions above the False Summit did not encourage a descent of the SW Chutes. The start of the Chutes was hard white ice. The skiing from the summit to the false summit was icy and rough. The slope below the false summit was heavy, unconsolidated, wet, new snow at the start but became decent corn halfway to the Lunch Counter. We were back at the parking lot by 4:30 pm and home by 11 pm. By the way it is not possible to obtain any of these permits at the trail head it must be done at the Trout Lake Ranger Station. Also, there was no one enforcing these permit requirements (although we were told that there had been policing on Saturday). I forgot to mention one other permit which is required to ski Adams. That is a Northwest Forest Service Pass ($30 annual) which is required to park at the end of the road. So, our party of four paid $90 in permits for our ten hours on the mountain. I've been skiing/climbing this mountain for years and I could discern no 'improvements' whatsoever. So it's hard for me to be empathetic to whatever supposed good is being served." Brent H June 30, 2001 Sunrise 0, Tatoosh 2: "Sunrise opened Saturday, and we'd been anticipating skiing the chutes for months. We were locked and loaded, primed and ready. Everyone arrived early. One of the early birds told me that the volunteer Ranger said the north facing chutes along the Sourdough Ridge and Burroughs 1, 2, and 3 were scoured out by late season northerlies. No skiable snow. I thought to myself "yeah, right, I'm going to take the advice of a non-skiing snot-nosed volunteer ranger kid... right". I decided to listen to the story first hand and then load up and head for where I knew there would be snow. After all, we had NEVER failed to get some turns in, for the last 5 years, on opening weekend at Sunrise. Well the snot-nosed kid turned out to be a tall lanky Scandinavian woman older that me (yeah, that old!) and looking like a hell of a lot better climber. Not only that but she had skied the Fryingpan Gl., the Interglacier and Goat Rocks in the last week (none of which are exactly whimpy ski tours). I could tell she knew what she was talking about. It wouldn't have surprised me if she has done all the aforementioned ski routes on 2-inch wide, double cambered, nordic skis. But I still wasn't convinced our Sourdough Chutes tour was off until I asked her of the source of her information. When she told me she personally hiked the area the day before and looked down every chute herself I decided to trust her and try to salvage the day by picking an alternative destination. Jeanette pointed out that seeing as how she and I had done the Tatoosh the weekend before it seemed like a pretty safe bet. Turned out to be a good call. What with the drive around we didn't get on the trail 'til nearly 11:00, but we sure had our way with the Pinnacle Glacier up at the Pinnacle/Castle Saddle. Snow on the back (south) side is pretty well gone but the front side is still skiable at the top on north aspects down to about 5600. Two pages of pics are available for those that are still dreaming of snow but can't get to it. Hope they help." ron jarvis June 30, 2001 Ruth Mt (Baker area): "Trail snow free to just below Hannigan Pass. Some rain damage (rivlets) to snow at lower levels. Good smooth snow from the summit to about 1500 feet down. Lots of wildflowers and waterfalls. No bugs!" Bryan and Carol June 24, 2001 Tour up and over Castle Saddle: "Tim had considerately posted a report of good ski conditions on ttips late Saturday. That report and prior afternoon commitments bolstered our resolve to ski the Tatoosh. Weather was rain at the lower elevations, grauple and snow at the top. While snow coverage was lower than in earlier years it was adequate. We barely managed to ski back all the way to the road without deskiing or shifting to ATV mode. That probably won't happen again this year. But then I'd still rather load up for a short hike than stay home and dream about the turns. Snow conditions were stable with great conditions for booting on the steeper pitches. Light was not much for novice picture taking but if you'd like to see what the weather looked like there's a couple of the better ones at Tatoosh pics." ron jarvis June 23, 2001 Castle Peak: "With the freezing level at 7000 and seeing plenty of snow on Castle Peak from Paradise we decided to go for sure corn rather than possible ice coming down from Muir. We were able to ski all the way up and back from Reflecton Lake. There was still enough snow on the south side to get almost as far down as during the winter. The snow wasn't perfect corn, but very good. Managed to get in 3,500 feet of Yo Yoing." Don, Roger, Tim and Marilyn June 23-24, 2001 Summerland, MRNP: "All is not summer in Summerland! Gary and I headed up with full overnite packs on Sat morn. We Pitched tent and left wieghty items at Summerland camp. Snow is now gone from Summerland camp but is only a short carry to don skis or boot up. Above Meany Crest was cloudy and with reports of crevassing on Frying Pan we decided to head for Panhandle Gap. Salvaged the day with some good steep runs and a scramble up peak to west of the gap. Big goat seemed pissed that we wanted the view and kicked some rocks on us as he left. High clouds but Adams and Hood visible.I'm always amazed at how much terrain is there. Skied all the way back to Camp at 8pm for late dinner.Woke up dry but it immediatly turned to rain and then snow with winds. We packed up and left and felt good about one good day given the weather forcast. It won't be long before skiing in this area is over. Goat island Mt is totally devoid of snow on south side and Sunrise looked very dry. Sunrise opens this weekend on 30th." Robie June 21, 2001 Mt. Adams: SW Chutes: "I see lots of recent reports here from those planning to ski the SW chutes, but doing the regular South Rib route instead. Anyway, after a couple of similar "failures" in previous years, I did finally manage to ski the SW Chutes and it was quite a memorable run. My friend used a splitboard and I used randonee. We left Cold Springs at 6 am, skinned and climbed the South Rib to the false summit just after 2pm (kind of slow, eh?), and began the descent at 3pm. On this perfect day with full sun and light winds, that was a couple hours too late for optimal snow conditions, the top 4-8 inches were well-softened (especially the whiter patches of recent snow, although older dirtier areas were firmer and much better). This made for a mushy run, but also made stopping quite easy in case of a fall. The slope is a consistent 35+ degrees from 11400 ft down to almost 8500, with the steepest pitch at the very bottom (about 40 degrees for a couple hundred feet), so self-arresting is a major concern if the slope is not softened. Numerous embedded fallen rocks make the slope interesting below 9000 ft, and there is an absolute maze of fallen rocks to negotiate on the gentler pitches below 8000 ft. However, despite 1000's of rocks studding the slope, we saw none coming down at us, and also managed not to destroy our skis or board on any of the embedded rocks. We skied continuously down through various ash-covered rolls to the outlet of the big bowl at 7000 ft. We continued skiing down the outlet stream gully to 6400 ft, with a couple of short ski-removals needed to cross rocky areas. Total skiable vertical of 5100 feet from the false summit. Below 6400 ft, we downclimbed easy open forested slopes along the edge of the gully to meet the Round the Mountain Trail beside a little waterfall at 6050 ft. About 1.5 miles of up-and-down hiking on the 80% snow-free trail returned us to the signed junction with the South Climb trail at 6300 ft. Right now, this trail exit is probably much easier than traversing across the bare talus-and-ash slopes higher up. Numerous photos and a full trip report will be posted soon on my website at http://www.skimountaineer.com/ " Amar Andalkar (andalkar@u.washington.edu) June 20, 2001 Spray Park/Flett Glacier, MRNP: "The road was still gated at the Paul Peak trailhead, about 5 miles from Mowich Lake, so I mounted my skis on my mountain bike and started pedaling. First snow patches on the road at about 4400ft, and continuous snow at 4600ft, where I started skiing. There was continous snow, about 3-4ft, at Mowich Lake, and the valley leading up to Knapsack Pass was well covered, but with an increasingly deep layer of relatively new snow, which was softening rapidly on this warm, sunny day. On the east side of Knapsack, the newer snow had avalanched in two places, with very well defined, 1 ft fracture crowns that were quite wide. Continuous snow cover over Mt. Pleasant and into Spray Park, with more connected snowfields leading from Spray Park up to the lobes of the Flett than I have seen before. I went up to about 7800ft between Echo and Observation, and did a 500ft run; the newer surface snow was frozen enough to stay on top of, and provided nice skiing. Climbed back up, traversed west, and descended a Flett lobe past the little moraine lake and into upper Spray Park. Between about 7000 and 6500ft the newer snow softened and my turns plowed down into 8-10 inches of heavy mush. After that, it was mostly touring back to my tracks by Mt. Pleasant, and then over Knapsack and back to my bike. A nice trip with lots of touring (get out those no-wax skis!) and good runs at the top." Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) June 19, 2001 Mt. Shuksan: "Road open to the end. Trail snow free until well into the woods at around 4200 ft. Some tree pollen to about 6000 ft. Lots of new snow still un-consolidated and mushy but easy, great skiing. Some avalanche hazard on steeper south facing slopes late in the afternoon. Top 12-15 inches easy shear and moving rapidly down the slope." Bryan & Carol June 16, 2001 Mt. Adams: "Went down Friday night getting to the trailhead at about 11:00. We got up at 5:30, and started up the hill a little after 6:00. The snow on the way up was pretty solid, so we only used our skins for 1,000 ft of the climb. The original plan was to ski the SW chute, but ditched that idea when we saw a climber going up the last section front pointing and using two ice tools. We started down after 3:00, and it still hadn't softened up much. The section from the summit to the false summit wasn't too bad, but then again hard snow to get an edge in. The very top section below the false summit was very dicey due to the hard icy snow and the steep pitch. The lower half of that was challenging, but we made it work. Below lunchcounter we finally found some corn to reward us." Don Thompson June 16 - 17, 2001 Mt. Adams: "The road is open to Cold Springs. The trail is snow free for the first mile. On Saturday the sun was out all day. I skied the Crescent Glacier with good corn conditions. Other skiers coming down from the summit reported icy conditions until about 1PM. So I timed my summit for 1PM. Unfortunately, a band of high clouds covered the mountain for most of the morning and the snow remained frozen above Lunch Counter. The ski down the Crescent Glacier was great again on Sunday." Rob K (rob2ski@hotmail.com) June 16 - 17, 2001 Mt. Adams: "The road is clear to Cold Springs (5,600). We carried to a bit above Timberline Camp (6,200), and then again up the ridge west of the Crescent Gl. Climbers are going both east and west of the Crescent. We chose the more skier friendly (more snow) west route, with a camp, geezer style, above the Crescent at about 8,300. The false summit pitch had refrozen well by the next morning. Although there were areas where some decent steps were kicked in there were others where the snow was hard enough to prevent kicking steps, which make us appreciate our decisions to go with boot crampons and ice axe for this pitch. Overcast skies, low temps and moderate winds led us to conclude that no corn was to be had on the upper reaches of the mountain this day. So we made the best of the boilerplate until we found some quite reasonable snow on the east side of the false summit pitch between the rock bands. The snowfield below the lunch counter was starting to corn nicely as we cruised by and the Crescent Glacier was like peaches and cream. Suffered one, skis on, pine needle crossing below the Crescent and then made it down to 5,900 before loading up for the short carry back to Cold Springs. Pics of the trip posted at Adams Pics" RonÊJarvis June 16-17, 2001 Rainier: "The last two weekends were for my daughter's HS graduation (yeah, Carrie!). So I visited Rainier twice this weekend (day trips). On Saturday KevinG and I climbed the Interglacier to Steamboat Prow and looked down on Schurman. The first 200vf were awful (trap crust unsoftened due to wind on that aspect), but away from the wind we found a corridor close to Mt. Ruth with good corn. Before descending we visited the summit of Ruth (BryanS and party were there), but choose not to ski Ruth due to lack of snow. The crevasses on the IG were where they always are and were not as threatening as I feared they might be (low snow pack). It helped to follow recent tracks. Of course, we were aware of the risk. BTW only one party of climbers used a rope on the IG (they may have been the smart ones amidst all us dummies and pollyannas). On Sunday I skied to Camp Muir 'by myself' (right!). There was a cloud band from the base of Pan Point to Pebble Creek, coming and going. I've skied Muir innumerable times (OK, a lot) and this may have been the best ever, at least from Muir to Pebble Creek. Lovely corn. Few other skiers both days. Hey, it's not over yet!" BrentH June 15-20, 2001 Truncated Southern Volcanoes Tour: "The plan was to spend four days at the Wy'East Tele camp, then spend the following 6 days skiing Mt. Adams (southwest chutes), Mt. Jefferson (Jefferson Park Glacier) and Mt. Shasta (Hotlum-Wintun)....plus whatever else happened to turn up along the way. June 15th: Zig Zag Glacier, Mt. Hood. The first day at the telecamp went about as expected: I drove down the night before, arrived in the Timberline parking lot around 3 in the morning, napping lightly before getting up early for our lift-assisted backcountry tour. We dawdled for a while, then rode the lifts to the top of Palmer and skinned from there to Illumination Saddle on bulletproof snow. Apparently it had snowed 16 inches two days before, which had whitened things up and evened out the cups and runnels; all looked very pretty, lacking only a couple of hours of strong sunlight to soften things up. There is a single crevasse opened just below the saddle--small and easily turned, but deep. Also of note was the steady rockfall coming from above and just east of the saddle, even early in the day while everything was still hard frozen. At least two of our small group were Telemarktips.com regulars (I'll leave it to them to name themselves if they choose). It happened that Shelly Butler, Wy'east owner, had just turned 39 once again, so one of our group hustled on ahead to the saddle with two sections of homemade chocolate cake in their tins, a jar of frosting, bowls, forks, napkins and a giant thermos of high-quality hot coffee (with Starbucks cups)....thereby substantially raising the bar for middle-aged men everywhere. When I arrived he was hunched over in the cold, frantically spreading icing on the assembled cake as Shelly approached. By positioning myself carefully I was able to eat more than my fair share. The snow was softening only very reluctantly, so eventually we all set off down the Zig Zag Glacier prematurely. I convinced myself (and a few others) that the steeper shots to skiers right would have better snow (which turned out to be not in the least true), and though I skied the steep parts successfully I finally tripped on some frozen avalanche debris, which gave me the opportunity to feel very self-congratulatory about carrying a Whippet. On the other hand, I also promptly let go of my other pole, precisely as I was only recently swearing I never do in falls. By the time we'd dropped a couple of thousand feet and climbed back up again the snow was perfect velvet, making it ungodly difficult to stop descending this second time down, though there was at least another 2000 feet of skiable snow below us when we turned back uphill. Along the way back into the ski area I was not persuasive enough to convince more than one other person to drop off the small cornice at the head of Zig Zag Canyon and plummet down the soft 50 degree slope below. We then finished our traverse and skied the groomers directly to the parking lot. Plenty of snow remains in the ski area to the bottom of Magic Mile lift, and the usual gully still has snow right to the edge of the pavement, no more than 30 feet from where I had parked. Why waste time hiking? June 16-17: Wy'east Telecamp, Mt. Hood. The following two days were pure lift-served instruction, in which various telemark movers, shakers and luminaries taught us all about how very many wrong ways (and how few right) there are to telemark. They were very nice about it ("The people in this group are such good skiers now that it's all a matter of making subtle changes for you."), but the comparison between how they skied and how I skied made it perfectly clear why I was there. Jimmy Ludlow was up there too, teaching the running of gates to his own set of students on one of the Palmer lanes. I don't think I've ever seen such angulation in a tele skier; nor have I ever seen quite such a stack of shims--65 mm, I think he said. Maybe I'm just showing my backcountry naivete. On Saturday I took the prize by acclamation for the best fall on videotape, which happened absolutely without warning right in front of the camera. No problem: it's just a habit I've developed over the years, falling ingloriously as soon as someone points that thing at me. The camp went rather well, I thought, although cold temps and high clouds kept the snow up high from softening much, particularly on Sunday (refer to Ron's photos on a separate report of skiing on Adams the same weekend). This was the day, too, when the devil himself tempted me into trying out the bumps course, for which I am ill-equipped even under the best of circumstances. These, of course, were not the best of circumstances: the bumps themselves were frozen solid, and most were sprinkled liberally with death cookies. The rest of the class (including our cloven-hoofed instructor) flailed variously while occasionally hinting at the possibility of grace. I fell almost immediately and somehow managed to torque my left ankle badly (my TRP's did not release) with attendant popping sensations and pain. I limped down the hill wondering where the nearest x-ray facilities might be, and whether I'd be able to walk once I removed my boot. June 18-19: Intermission. The following day, Monday, the traditional Snowdome backcountry trip was cancelled due to a still-gated access road, so various folks made various noises about skiing the Wy'east face. While I limped around and felt sorry for myself they proceeded to take forever getting going, and apparently made motions in that general direction but turned back early. I drove up to the Meadows base area just to take a look at the route: there'd be 500 feet or so booting up, then more or less steady coverage all the way to the top of the face, about 5000 vertical feet total. I made arrangements to meet a couple of others at Mt. Adams on Tuesday night, and drove down the hill for x-rays. The report was, basically, that I had strained some tendons badly enough to warrant a giant splint and a week on crutches. I negotiated a bit, and my doctor seemed willing to accept the possibility that I might not be willing to follow directions quite so literally as all that, and might in fact choose to push my luck a bit. In the end I persuaded him to say that the worst I was likely to do was the same but more so, which I chose to take as a suggestion that I take a day off before the next 6000 v.f. climb and ski. The radiologist looked at my x rays and said there was a broken bone in there--"Not a very important bone"--but that it appeared to be an old break. This was news to me, since I've never had any clue that I'd broken my ankle. I thought of all the times I've kept going in pursuit of one sport or another while suffering intense pain. I'm not sounding exceptionally intelligent, am I? June 20: Mt. Adams South Climb. At any rate, the two rest days seemed to help, so I drove up to the south climb trailhead on Adams. The first sections of road are in outstanding shape, right up to Morrison Creek or so (I stopped to see "Big Tree," which turned out to be in fact an impressively big tree, probably the largest Ponderosa Pine I've ever seen by a margin of at least 50%). The last five miles are rough, but perfectly doable in an ordinary car, though I'd recommend leaving the Corvettes and MGB's at home. There are patches of snow in the woods at the trailhead, about 5600 feet. On Wednesday we got underway a bit after 6 am, booted to the Lunch Counter and skinned to the false summit. My ankle hurt at times, and it made for a somewhat slow and clumsy climb, but skiing seemed entirely possible, and conditions were pretty reasonable: firm base, recent snow softening rapidly in the sun. We had some discussions about the options for traversing back from the bottom of the SW Chutes to the regular route; it'd be a shame to ruin 3 or 4000 feet of steep, fall-line descent by thrashing endlessly around down low. I thought I'd just take a little practice run before committing myself to the descent. I did a single kick turn and something started to hurt like hell; I skinned up a couple of hundred feet of low angle snow, then tried to ski down. Pain. No way, and no doubt about it. I took off my skis and put them on my pack, trying to think about all the undone chores I would now have the chance to finish once I got home, four days earlier than expected. In the end I butt-glissaded to the lunch counter, carrying skis and backpack on my lap and dipping in one side or the other to steer. After a couple of thousand feet of that, I walked the rest of the way to the car: 6000 vertical feet altogether, of which all but the last 500 would have been skiable without interruption. I thought about mountaineering, which at one time seemed a perfectly natural thing to do: first you walk up, then you walk down. It used to be a lot more fun, this mountaineering thing, before I learned to ski. My partners opted out of the SW chutes after all, skiing gracefully down the normal route, arriving at the parking lot a bit before me with reports of sticky, awkward snow and the suggestion that about 12 noon would have been a good time for a decent on that route. For comparison with Ron's report on the same route, this was a warm day, in the eighties in the Columbia valley, with a clear night preceding. Winding our way north on the forest roads we stopped to admire the best views of Adams, the SW chutes slashing in a most aesthetic way down and to the right for three or four thousand feet off the false summit. The traverse at the bottom didn't look too unreasonable. Maybe next year, right before the telecamp. Jefferson and Shasta, too. Now if you'll excuse me, I've got a lot of chores to do. Enjoy." Mark June 10, 2001 Paradise; Mount Rainier: "Designs on Camp Muir were dashed by low vis and snow at the parking lot. A consensus of 2 pinheads, a ski boarder and an old rando led us, on instruments, to Edith Basin and up the chute to Golden Gate. 3-4 inches of fresh snow on a solid base made for good skiing once the surface was stirred up a bit by the first skier so that the visibility was a bit better in the flat light. By the third run the base was starting to give way so we skied out down to the Paradise Valley road. All in all a great day in spite of the Braille skiing." ron jarvis June 9-10, 2001 Interglacier - Rainier: "I spent Saturday and Sunday up on Rainier doing the ski from Steamboat Prow down the Inter glacier back into Glacier Basin. The 5500 ft snow level on Saturday and 4000 ft level brought winter back to Rainier and both days we had fresh snow to ski on. Saturday proved to be the best day, a few inches of fresh over a firm base, we got in a nice 4000 vert ft. run on suprisingly consistant snow conditions. Sunday morning it was snowing at just about 4000 feet and there was six inches or more of new snow in glacier basin. The cloud cover was thicker than Saturday so despite having ample deep new snow to ski, we couldn't see very well at all. Skiing down the snout of the glacier we knocked off some sizable sloughs and wet snow avalanches had already ran into the basin from the cliff bands to the west of Mt.Ruth. I was suprised by the number of people in the basin still trying to take a shot at the summit and the lack of fellow skiers up there. A bit of advice for anyon! e going up there, we roped up for skinning up the glacier, the usual crevasse at around 8000 already has evidence that climbers have been busting through the snowbridges. Hope everyone else in the PNW enjoyed the freshies this weekend." Pete June 9, 2001 Heliotrope Ridge, Mt. Baker: "Meeting at 7 AM in Bellingham seemed like a good idea when we were making our plans, though in the end we sat at the trailhead (having decided to try Heliotrope instead of Skyline Divide, per our original plan) watching it pour down rain for quite a while ("Let's have another look at that map. Maybe another cup of coffee, too....") before actually gearing up and going. Rather soggy, at first, but there was snow coverage above 4500 feet and more falling from the sky. By 5500 there was whiteout, and I led though the nothingness at a 140 degree bearing for a while, then left up the ridge to 7000 feet. We skied badly at first in 50 ft. visibility on slushy corn under 2 inches of heavy new, then spectacularly well once the skies mysteriously cleared for ten minutes. That inspired us to go up for another shot, climbing into a cold wind with blowing snowfall....and whiteout, of course. Again we skied badly in bad visibility, much better once we got low. By 5500 feet I was skiing pretty well despite the slush and the boot tracks, bounding along the bumpy mess down the last snow gully to pick up the trail as it entered the woods around 4600 feet. Lots of disappointed climbers up there, hoping for a break in the weather, but the three skiers showed nothing but smiles. The Glacier Creek road is clear to the trailhead, in good shape with a few potholed stretches, and the trail has only intermittent snow to 4500 feet, just below the moraines and timberline. Creek crossings were perfectly tolerable despite the rain, and the trail itself is in good shape. Couldn't see any open crevasses where we were—of course, most of the time we couldn't see much of anything at all—but the lower Coleman and Roosevelt Glaciers are very broken up. I was really alarmed to see how far they've receded, too, in the seven or so years since I first came up this way to play on the seracs. Enjoy." Mark June 9, 2001 Ingalls Pass: "The weekend forecast called for drippy weather so we decided to head to the Teanaway region. It was the right call, it was sunny at the trailhead. We didn't encounter snow until the top of the pass, where it was patchy at best. The north side of the pass held pockets of snow, interrupted by boulders. The snow was pretty soft and we posthold 5-7 inches. The southeast facing slopes of the area between the pass and Ingalls Lake are pretty bare. There are some chutes higher up but they're not continuous anymore. We skied some short fairly steep shots directly west of the pass and then traversed east for 400 more feet of vertical. There is a sweet north facing gully (35-40 degrees)about a half mile to the east of the pass that extends for about 800 ft and is twenty yards wide. Very little snow on Stuart. Skiing may only last for one more week over here at best." Dave Banks June 7, 2001 Chinook Pass: "Got a late start and arrived at the Pass at noon. The road construction between Tipsoo Lake and the Pass can provide a 30 minute delay which it did. Traversed past Naches to the NE facing bowl and climbed the corniced ridge line. The snow was mushy and a couple of donuts were about 2 feet in diameter. The slopes were stable but the late start caused sloughs on the steeper angles. Still plenty of snow but the construction will definitely continue for the remainder of the ski season." Zap June 7, 2001 Skyline Divide, Mt. Baker: "Just a quick afternoon ski on Skyline Divide on the north side of Mt. Baker today. I left Bellingham around 4 in the afternoon and drove to the snow, about 3800 feet on the Deadhorse Road. I started walking up the road around 5:30, found the trail pretty free of snow at first, then suddenly completely covered at 5170 feet and vanished without a trace at 5200 (amazing how that happens). I got to the ridge crest a bit after 7, admired views for a bit, then skied here and there for a while on excellent corn just beginning to refreeze but still perfectly carveable. For my last run I thought I'd drop into a nice north-facing bowl, ski just 600 feet, then climb back out and return the way I came. Of course, the bowl was great, and it went on for a while, then narrowed into a little gully and rolled over steeply, then widened out again. I couldn't stop skiing - having too much fun - and next thing I knew it was 8:30 and I'd dropped rather far, and the woods were looking dark already. I added and subtracted and figured I'd be better off trying to continue on down the drainage, which would surely lead me out to the road near where I'd parked. If I climbed all the way back up I'd be trying to find my own original uptrack by headlamp, and there'd be the possibility of having to spend the night there. So I took off my skis and started booting down, following some bobcat tracks and making good time. 400 vertical feet from where I figured I'd intersect the road I ran out of snow in the little gully I was following, and it sounded like a waterfall below me, so I cut over into the woods. The sun was down and the brush was thick, but I didn't have far to go, and I watched my altimeter count down the vertical footage. A little after 9:00 I figured I was just a couple of hundred feet above the road. Now, you're all familiar with the forms, right? I mean, these stories follow predictable patterns, so you all understand that right around now there are only a couple of things that can happen: 1) impenetrable alder or willow thickets; 2) devil's club; 3) poison ivy; 4) broken bones; or 5) impassable cliff band. I almost fell off the cliff. In fact, one leg did fall off the cliff, but I was able to stop before the rest of me followed. It was getting murky in the woods (which mainly consisted of thick slide alder anyway, all pointed downhill), and everything was damply covered with a coating of slimy green moss, and there were branches in the way so I couldn't really see where I was putting my feet, even when I wasn't too busy trying to thread my skis through the trees to bother watching where I was going. So I couldn't really tell there was a cliff, but once I realized my leg was dangling there I yanked it back. Then I had to climb back uphill a ways, and try and traverse to the right where it looked more open. At one point I looked down and saw the road 100 feet below me. Then I traversed for about 15 minutes, working hard, and moved another ridiculously short distance to the right. I looked down and saw my car, parked against a snowbank right there at the bottom of this little 50 foot cliff. I thought a lot about what I'd tell the search and rescue people when they came yelling for me in the morning, and found me napping, tangled in the slide alder fifty feet above the road. I thought about that short length of 7mm line I sometimes carry, sitting at home by the front door in a stuff bag with a bit of webbing and a single biner for short rappels. I also thought a lot (and this is really humiliating) about how Lou Dawson is right when he says duckbill toes are really unwieldy and silly, since it seemed like I could've managed a lot better in the (mossy, slippery, downhill-pointed, increasingly dark) slide alder if I was wearing almost anything but tele boots. But in the end, of course, I found a place where I could toss down my pack (freshly sharpened ski edges rattling and clanking a bit) and follow it carefully down the cliff, mixing hand-over-hand on all these very suspect-looking bushes with judicious placement of my whippet in patches of mossy mud. I got to ! the car at a quarter 'til ten, and it was still light out and the sky was still all sorts of nice colors. Must be summer here in the PNW. Enjoy." Mark June 6-10, 2001 North side of Mt. Adams: "Time for our annual June ski trip, and Andy and I, having endured a lot of rain last year at Mt. Rainier, decided that Mt. Adams might have the better weather and, hopefully, snow. It was a good choice. We departed Seattle on Wednesday in rain and grey, but as we approached the Divide Camp trailhead from the north, the clouds were breaking up. We couldn't quite drive to the trailhead, so headed up through the woods and soon picked up the trail, which was easy to follow because of old snowmobile tracks going all the way up to and way beyond timberline (yes, this is a Wilderness area). We put the skis on about half way to treeline and, with a couple of spots of all-terrain skiing, didn't take them off again until reaching the last stands of trees and choosing a camp spot. We found a big snow hump in the lee of a band of trees and dug in a tent platform and a bench, with views out to Rainier and the Goat Rocks. A nearby melt-out snow cave with streams of water dripping off an ice layer allowed us to fill our 2.5 gallon water bag each afternoon during dinner, avoiding the need to melt snow. We quickly settled into a pleasant routine of breakfast, a long tour-with-turns exploring different parts of the mountain, early dinner, and then turns in the evening sun on local runs above camp which consistently had the best snow - consolidated, fast, and smooth. Overall, the skiing was excellent, and the "worst" snow was 3-4 inches of soft on a very consolidated base. The snow refroze every night, at first because of clear skies, then because colder air moved in. What was brilliant white new snow when we first arrived magically transformed into snow of varying shades of brown during the first couple of warm days, as the newest snow melted and exposed the more aged, dusty snow surface below, and the best skiing was usually on this darker snow. Precipitation was well mannered, confining itself to the nighttime hours, with snow levels at or below our camp; on Friday night a strong band of thunderstorms passed by just to the north and colder air moved in, and an inch of new snow Saturday night mostly restored the snowpack to whiteness. Even with the space between Adams and Rainier filled with dark, low clouds, the upper part of Adams almost always had sunshine, and we never had to ski in whiteout. The colder temperatures on Saturday and Sunday did create an upper limit for the good snow, as we found slopes above about 8000ft to be too solidly frozen for enjoyable skiing; a little descent brought us back into the good snow. We saw mountain goat tracks everywhere we went (do they do anything besides walk across the snow?), and even saw a few of the animals themsleves, at a distance. A note on our ski gear, since we would appear to be behind the times in this regard. We both were using 85mm Karhu no-wax skis with 3-pin bindings - skinny and old fashioned to most current skiers. But...the snow was so ideal that we never had need for skins - we could climb straight up virtually any slope we came to, and at worst head slightly off the fall-line. Get to the top of a run, shorten the poles, and be off; get to the bottom of a run, lengthen the poles, start climbing for another run. I didn't take skins; Andy used his new kicker skins for one climb, then didn't bother with them any more. We also didn't need gaiters - I didn't even take any. Our one concession to modern ski technology was the boots: T3s - warm and dry, leather can't compete with that. I just wish there were even lighter plastic tele boots available! On descents, the skis performed great, carved or skidded depending on the snow. Perhaps the latest gear would have boosted our skiing performance by 10%, but it didn't matter 'cause we just wanted to have fun on the snow, and we did!" Charles (tay@turns-all-year.com) June 3-4, 2001 Esmeralda Basin: "Started up Sunday afternoon under the blue skys of the eastside into the lowering gray clouds of being nearer the crest. Not a smidge of snow at the trail head nor under 5,000 feet for the most part. Climbed up to a a little basin at 6,000 where the snow started and there was still a nice spot to drop a pack and room to sleep. Skinned up thru old snow actually able to skin a line without desking. Made it up to the ridge overlooking Lake Ann, sort of the back side of Ingalls peak. Made one run down to the lake in less snow than what appeared from above. A number of rocks carefully placed about a inch or two under the surface assured me of the need for a new wax base job in the future. Skinned back up and back over down to camp thru actually pleasent corn and able to de-ski right at the tent in pelting snow. Woke up in the AM to clear skys and warming temps. Skinned up over the ridge to my west and found a much more pleasent bowl a bit west of the rocks of lake ann. 700 ft from the summit of 6500 or so was all one could eke out but what was there was about perfect. A few old snow mobile tracks but no ski or walker tracks to be seen. Another nice run back down to camp on a more northeasterly aspect provided a pleasent end to the morning before making camp and walking back out." Cwiley June 3, 2001 Silver Peak, Snoqualmie Pass Backcountry: "Thanks to earlier reports from Charles Wiley and Brent Hostetler it was evident that this normal, old favorite, mid to late June tour should be consumed now, while the goods were still on the table. Found a dusting of fresh snow on the road and a major drift that appeared impassable on the road at the edge of the clear cut at Olallie Meadows (3800). Packed up and shouldered our skis for what we anticipated as a short carry to skinable snow. After about a quarter of a mile of snow dusted dirt road the impassable drift started seeming more passable, so we dropped our loads and went back for the car. After a half a dozen or so (vehicle) runs into the snowbank we busted through and made it up to about 4000 before we got to one that was really impractical to fight. This time loading up for real, we headed up the road to our normal 4200 road end which begins our favored north to south circuit through the Silver Peak bowl. With 3 inches of new and increasing thickness of older snow on the road as we proceeded, we unloaded and started skinning about half way to the upper parking area. Barely managed, without desking, to skin from the upper parking through the woods around the ridge to the base of the northside bowl where there was good snow coverage. In fact it was so nice that we stopped for a yoyo run from the roll about half way up. By the time we got to the saddle for lunch we were “on instruments” in steady snow (in June? What's up with that?) which was fine, because we had already seen the views many times before, and appreciated the fresh snow. Skiing down the southside bowl we saw various large rocks which had never shown themselves in prior years. The big camper sized rock at the mouth of the southside bowl that we usually sit on (if it is even exposed) was so exposed we could not see over it. We triggered several surface sloughs of the new snow in the avi chutes down through the woods on our way back to the clear cut, and saw death cookies big enough to pass for polar bears. But the base beneath held firm despite the warm temps. All the new snow was melted on the road but the prior coverage and drifts afforded us to ski more than 80 % of the way back to the car with a couple of short stone grinds." ron jarvis June 3, 2001 Castle/Pinnacle Peak: "Jill, Dale, Hillary and I arrived at the Paradise lot with the plan of returning to ski the Nisqually Chutes but the snow and clouds changed those plans. Met another mountaineer who heard from the ranger that the cloud layer broke at 9000 feet. Nobody in our group expressed any interest in climbing 4000 feet in a snowing whiteout up the Muir Snowfield. Sometimes, we actually do what really makes sense - go lower. We arrived at Reflection Lakes and noticed only one other vehicle with rock climbers. There was a beautiful "sucker hole" as we started the skinning. On the ascent, we expeienced sun, snow, clouds and whiteout conditions. The top was partially socked in as we started our descent. Conditions were 3 inches of heavy new snow on a firm base. As we descended the steep gullies we triggered small sloughs that cleared the path for the following skiers. It was not worth a return climb." Zap June 3, 2001 Mt Baker Summit/Easton: "This should be considered an addendum to Mark's report of the same date. This reporter was accompanied by the Lady in Red: L.R. We headed up the Scott Paul trail toward the Squak route but soon lost the trail in the snow. After some exciting creek crossings finally refound it and continued on. Like Mark, got into whiteout at about 6700'. We saw a group appear at about 6000' quite a bit behind us--probably Mark's. Hit dry fluffy new at about 7500 when sticking problems began. Got onto some boot uptrack after awhile which reduced the sticking. New snow got to almost 10" in some areas. I saw very little evidence of crevasses other than the usual monsters--the least compared to my trips in the past although they were usually in July. Just lurking underneath I imagine. The regular skier's uproute that leads to the caldera is undoable this year. The postholers set a route about 500 yards to the west which works fine. Lots of wind and clear skies above 9000'. We skinned the whole Roman Wall--a first for me in six trips here. Howling winds on top. The summit, with sastrugi ice, had a neat prayer flag adding to the Himmalaya-type ambiance. Got out of the wind 40' down toward the Boulder east side. Enjoyed a wonderful, although leaden legged, descent with some windcrust, lots of hard-earned powder, and some more whiteout in the 6800' ecstasy of turns. If corn is your goal, it may take a few more weeks." Nick Davies June 3, 2001 Squak/Easton Glaciers, Mt. Baker: "It went pretty much like last week: again up the Squak Glacier, again down the drainages next to the Easton, this time in intermittent whiteout and light snow unpredictably mixed with periods of intense heat and sunshine. Fresh snow covers the accumulated tree pollen from 4500 feet upwards, building to about 10 inches at 8600 feet, our high point for the day. I accidentally poked a pole through the surface snow into a narrow crevasse (in precisely the last place you'd expect to find a crevasse) while climbing, pointing up the dangers inherent in skiing active glaciers in exceptionally low snow years. Big puffs of steam boiled up out of several vents in the crater all day, with sulfur stench occasionally windblown in our direction. As trip leader I tried my best to lag at least 100 yards behind my charges on the uphill, the better to notice if anything went wrong and needed my attention. Of course, nothing went wrong and nothing needed my attention, so I tried lagging 200 yards behind, panting a bit and stopping sometimes to lean on my poles. Still nothing. Feeling rather put out at this I tried to forge into the lead on the long ski down, promptly leading us well off-route in the limited visibility, necessitating a brief bit of un-skinned climbing to get back on track. I had waxed my skis with incredibly slippery fluorinated wax the night before, and could not climb. The others seemed to have no problem. As to the snow itself, there's nothing much new to report. The fresh snow up high has turned everything brilliant white, and there were some good turns to be had...bearing in mind the usual caveats about skiing in deep sloppy conditions: don't anticipate your turns, accentuate weighting and unweighting, keep your speed up, etc. Sluffs and snow snails did what they usually do on anything much steeper than 35 degrees, but we saw nothing terribly worrisome. Lower down, new and old snow were merging into a heavy, wet mess for which I have no adequately expressive metaphor ("wallpaper paste," a personal favorite, captures the essential gluey quality but not the extravagant density). The new snow kept the pollen from accumulating on our ski bases, but this will not last long. The trailhead is almost melted out, and though the sides of the road were lined with dozens of climbers cars by 6:30 AM, there appeared to be no snow machines, so the mountain belongs to pedestrians again. There were a couple of bare patches low in the trees on the climb up (below 4000 feet), but we again managed to ski all the way out to the road on the way down. This will probably not be possible by next weekend, although those willing to ski stumps and pine needles might want to give it a try and report back. Enjoy. " Mark June 2, 2001 Chinook Pass: "Dorothea Driggers and I left Sumner early and skied Chinook pass .Visibility was low but snowed all morning.We made 5 runs in west facing glades of Naches peak. Well not really powder but 3" of fresh over 2' old snow.It was still snowing when we left at 2pm Saturday.New snow covered needles but watch out for trapped limbs under new snow. Good skiing.I wanted to get back to go to Mariners game so left early. I'm helped chaperone my wife's HS Japanese class and we were sitting right behind Ichiro.My job is to drink any confiscated beer!" Robie Back to top |