 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| This old version of Trip Reports is no longer being updated.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. |
| September-October 2001 Trip Reports |
October 29, 2001 Paradise, Mt. Rainier NP: "I returned to Seattle Sunday afternoon after a six day business trip. Lovely views of the Cascades from the airplane window. For Monday the NWS predicted mostly sunny, 6000' freezing level, and light winds. It was overcast early morning, but I kept the faith. Longmire gate was open at 9 am. What I got was not my hopes: Clouds/fog, no views, spitting rain/snow, windy, flat light. Venturing above Panorama Point in these conditions would have been especially stupid. I dinked around (3300vf, 7 mi) above Edith Creek (Golden Gates, S facing was icy) and around Mazama Ridge (E facing aspects were best). Curiously the best terrain/conditions I found was untracked. Cover was 8-12 inches, but the snow was consolidated and dense, so I hit no rocks and spared the vegetation). Noted several recent discharges from rock faces some of which were fairly large, in the 'almost an avalanche' category. Encountered a couple on snowshoes on top of Mazama Ridge. No one else, but in places lots of tracks from yesterday." Brent H October 28, 2001 Table Mountain, Mount Baker: "Well our group started out as a group of 8. We clearly were not alone. As the morning progressed there were tons of people that showed up on this day to get some turns in. Enjoying about 12-16 inches of fresh powder on a great weather window, most of the slopes in and around Table looked like a typical ski area after the first few hours. Wanting to get some fresh tracks of our own (which were hard to come by once the afternoon hit) our group quickly widdled down to 3 as Ben, Mark and myself decided to tour in a little deeper (west and south of Table Mountain). Due to the afternoon sun beatin' down on these south-southeast slopes, about an inch crust had developed over about 1 ft. of powder. Still made for some great skiing, just fewer turns made in order to plow through the stuff and maintain control. Made our last run slightly after 4 and was back at the parking lot by 5:15 with nobody left. All in all once getting past the crowds, it was quite enjoyable. The fresh snow and great weather made for a great day of touring." David Coleman (dcoleman@bcallen.com) October 28, 2001 Muir, Mt. Rainier NP: "Fresh snow and the promise of sunshine were an irrestiable draw for Mt. Rainier. Leaving the parking lot at Paradise at 10:30 or so Todd and I skined to just below Anvil rock. A brief rest for food and water and then some good turns were had in variable snow conditions. Down the Muir snowfield to Edith basin and back to the truck. A very enjoyable day for late October, the new snow being the kicker." paul smith (paul.smith@ci.seattle.wa.us) October 28, 2001 Muir/Mt. Rainier: "Regine and I drove to Mt. Rainier today through a wonderland of fall colors: cottonwoods, aspen, oak, maple, etc. etc. Snow began to cover the road at 3,000, packed snow by 4,000. Bright blue sky. We climbed to 8,500 first in cold wind, then awful calm and heat, then cold wind again. We skied down through everything (powder, trap crust, breakable crust, ice, rock,) but mostly dense powder for 3,000 vf to finally warm, wet cement where this morning was hardened concrete. We went down the east side of Panorama Point on Mt. Rainier to golden gate, but headed straight to the parking lot from Edith Basin because we didn't want trash any shrubs and trees just under the snow. Exposed rock on exposed ridges, deep snow on lee slopes; too little snow below 6,000 to be legally skiing and not doing damage to veg. Regine had her new Da Kine Blade that provided her with her best fitting and performing pack yet (even the small Dana Bomb Pack was too sloppy when not fully loaded). A good day. But I can't wait to try my new Kiva (we didn't ski in the lousy conditions yesterday, went shopping instead, and Alpine Experience made us several deals we couldn't refuse (great place to shop)). abc" Andy Carey (careyab@yahoo.com) October 27, 2001 Grand Park, Mt. Rainier NP: "A XC tour with some fun trail skiing I like to do before the road is snowed in. Snow on road started 3500' and was 8" deep (WET) at Eleanor Creek where we left the Troooper and headed south up thru the trees on skis from the start. Lots of downed trees so sans ski would have been faster. 12" of total snow in Grand Park with the top 5" of the drier type. Jeff, James and myself skied over to far South side and "high point". Good workout and if you hunt around minimum turns can be found up there. Big hoot is skiing trail back down. Light snow all day and very light winds." Robie October 26, 2001 Paradise, Mt. Rainier NP: "Friday appeared to provide a good weather window so Charles and I decided to go for it. The forecast called for rain and snow to move in during the afternoon but this was not the case as the skies got progressivley clearer during the course of our tour. We headed up towards the Muir snowfield at around 9:30, skiing from the parking lot on about 20" of heavy wet snow. Temperatures were in the mid thirties. At the top of Panorama Point we encountered gale force winds which accompanied us up to about 8000', where we decided to quit battling them. Two skiers descending from above said that when they reached the base of the lenticular cloud, enveloping the summit, at 9000', they encountered 70mph winds; we could see a plume tearing off of Anvil Rock most of the day. The snow on the descent was a tricky combination of stiff windpacked snow and random loose snow deposits. The wind didn't help much with balance either. Lower the snow was just plain cascade concrete. We decided to extend our touring by heading down the Skyline trail to Mazama Ridge and out via the snow-covered Edith Basin road. We were treated to an awesome lenticular cloud display on the eastern, leeward side of the mountain. In summary an enjoyable tour with marginal snow for turning but all on skis from car to car. Photos from this trip can be viewed here." Andy Palunas October 20, 2001 Black Tusk Microwave Area, Garibaldi Park, BC: "I was not going to try this one again but, after getting some good beta from the good folks at Genuine Guide Gear who had been up testing stuff the day before, we headed for the Microwave Tower Road (Cheakamus Lake Turnoff, don't turn right to the dump, but stay right after you start running parallel to the river) after a leisurely 8am North Shore departure. We got right up to the gate (which is surprising for this time of year) and skinned right round to the north side slopes of the Tusk. There were a lot of folks out (about 11-15 vehicles worth) and the big North facing slope was looking rather like a heli-run by about 2pm in the afternoon. There was great coverage - 20 to 40cm/8-15 inches over existing summer base but some warm overnight weather had created slightly tricky turning conditions which became easier when I did up my heel bails for the second run(!). There was lots of skiing to be had - we must have got in around 3000 ft of vertical by the time we got back to the car including 2 long straight runs. The front side of the towers was pretty crunchy, though, and there were some big hammerheads from snowmobilers that we had to ski through. The road was skiable too but it was a bit of a rock slalom and I'm sure I gave my boards a bit of an inadvertent stone grind on the way out. With freezing levels down to the Whistler Village (2200 feet) - I think we will be looking for other terrain this weekend - the alpine roads won't be driveable unless there's a big thaw. Weather was surprisingly unsettled - we had clear visibility to the Tantalus and Garibaldi for a while (with a high 5500 foot cloud deck, some flat light and a total whiteout which left us a bit perturbed! Generally, though, it was one of those bright but obscure sunscreen and shade days." Jonathan (meanteabag@yahoo.com) October 20, 2001 Muir Snowfield, Mt Rainier NP: "A few of us headed up to the Muir snowfield on Saturday (fourth weekend in a row for me up there), hoping to get up above the clouds and find some fresh snow. We were above the clouds in bright sunshine the whole day, but were a little disappointed that Friday's wet weather had deposited barely a trace of new onto the snowfield, but the coverage is still great with all but one tiny crevasse totally covered on the upper snowfield. We arrived at Muir about 1:00 and napped in the sun for about an hour before heading down. The top 500 feet was still quite icy, but it was smooth enough that it wasn't too bad. From Moon Rocks down we had stellar corn snow. I'm guessing by the weather that is occuring on the mountain today, anyone up there skiing on Sunday will have a vastly different trip report, hopefully they found some powder. One note, the boot track going up passes through two short rocky sections between the lower and upper snowfields, if you want to save your ski edges, stay skiiers right just about twenty feet from the boot track when it looks like the upper snowfield is coming to an end, you can find a skiable line that connects to the lower snowfield without taking your skis off." Pete Alderson (peter_alderson@hotmail.com) October 20, 2001 Muir/Rainier: "Much of last weekends snow below 7,000 was lost to rain. Above 7000, there was some new. We climbed to 8,900 on hard/refrozen snow. After lunch we skied down on defrosting snow/ice very much like early spring pre-corn conditions. Very nice and very fast! We skied to 7,400 in 10 minutes with a short deski to cross the rock humps midway down. Regine had her rock skis so she skied all the way to Pebble Creek and then re-ski'd to ski the small snow patch just over the ridge down from Pebble Creek. It was a real bluebird day with deep blue sky and little wind. abc" acarey October 14, 2001 Muir Snowfield, Mt. Rainier NP: "4:30am Sunday morning. The harder I squinted into computer the worse the weather seemed. Then I read Andy's report and that did it. Met Dorothea and Ron Jarvis in Eatonville in a light rain. Paradise parking lot still misty but soft winds. We delayed our decision till Pan point, Pebble creek and finally at the rolls above Pebble we skinned up. Weather was clearing and we were on the smoothest cleanest snowpack we had seen in months. It was nature's best grooming. The overnite freezing was softening nicely. Don't know if it was what is called verglas but it was my perception that it was. Kenji from Seattle and a friend chatted with us and then went on to Muir. We stopped at Moon Rocks in total sun and grabbed a snack. A lone skier passed down close by and that triggered a reflex to get going. Verglas or not it was total hero snow and we got 2000' of it. If you tried really hard you could break through and go down about 12". Interesting to see rocks in places that are normally covered. We packed up above Pebble and and hiked out in warm sunshine feeling very lucky. Talking to Kenji later they found it to be a bit icier up at Muir. Also even though I had packed my skis in 4 times with Ron Jarvis this was the 1st time we had actually skied together!" Robie "It was only 3 times. But everything else Robie said was gospel and here's the pics to prove it!" Ron October 14, 2001 Squak Glacier, Mt. Baker Backcountry: "Two of us meet along the interstate early Sunday morning (fog, drizzle, darkness), ready to ski. We drive to the Schreiber's Meadow trailhead off Highway 20, then sit in the front seat for a while, sometimes peering out the windows at the gloom, sometimes opening a door to poke an arm out in the rain. We make a lot of useless comments designed to stave off despair ("I think it's lightening up a bit; I don't think I could see those trees a few minutes ago," or "Feels like it's getting colder; the snow level's probably dropping."), or to defend against unduly hopeful, upbeat or optimistic tendencies ("Could stay like this until mid-April for all we know. Shoot, last year it never even snowed at all until early December, and even then it mostly rained.") I get out and wander over to the large and luxurious pit toilets, then studied the posted maps and trail reports, read all the notices twice. My partner fumbles around until he finds the recliner lever on the seat, gets comfortable and ready to take a nap. Then, without preamble, a couple of blue spots appear in the sky. Visibility improves, spirits lift. We shuffle our gear, discuss certain important philosophical questions (60 feet of 7mm line, or 120 feet of 9 mm? Stove for melting snow, or extra water? Ice axes, or self-arrest grips?), shuffle some more, and go trudging up the trail. As soon as the parking lot is out of site, the blue sky goes to wherever blue sky commonly goes, and it starts drizzling again. More philosophical discussions about this. Bits of snow along the trail below 4000 feet. Steady snow on the trail above 4000 feet. My partner is carrying unreasonably lightweight, floppy, waxless skis and wearing NN-BC boots; he puts them on, dances a little jig (it is possible that I imagined this part), and cruises happily up the trail. I am carrying giant, stiff skis, massive releasable tele bindings, plush climbing skins and huge plastic boots. My back hurts and my legs are tired, but I hide this as best I am able, pretending that I am happy to be carrying this additional 25 pound load uphill through the slush. We break out of the woods into an area of steep, snow-covered heather, and I hunker down to put on boots and skis. Suddenly we're skiing, it's mid-October, and life is good. Every ten minutes the weather does a total reversal, from miserable to perfectly tolerable and then back again, but we continue trudging uphill along the ridge. Heather gives way to moraine, slushy snowpack deepens to 8 or 10 inches, and the Squak Glacier comes into view, horribly receded, melted out and crevassed. I am totally impressed to see rock where recently was snow, giant gaping crevasses where just a short time ago was smooth ice and snow. We climb a line along the glacier's edge through a small cornice above Crag View and prepare to descend. Above us, what is usually safe and skiable is slotted and weird. This sure has been a grievous year for snow and ice. On the other hand, skiing is pretty good, for a rainy weekend in October: 8-10 inches of consolidated (that's a euphemism for "sopping wet") fresh snow over old neve, smooth and slick 20-40 degrees, for about 800 vertical feet. Then 500 feet of half-hidden morainal rocks under 7 inches of snow, followed by 500 feet of lumpy heather under 5 inches....then a bunch of close-spaced saplings in 4 inches, a narrow trail descending through old-growth with 3 inches, followed by sections of pine needles, then deadfalls, then gravel under a meager inch. I take my skis off and load them on my pack, but my partner has long since shot off into the distance down the trail. Judging by his track, he's leaping over the gravelly streambeds and hydroplaning through sections of waterlogged pine needles at a high rate of speed. Eventually I find him, sitting by the trail, swaddled in a lot of clothes as if he's been waiting for me for a long time. He is polite about this, but cannot resist mentioning how pleased he is to have chosen such appropriately light and maneuverable gear (glancing disdainfully at my great and unwieldy load). I am obliged to suggest that his obvious advantage in skill, athleticism, experience and positive attitude probably contributed greatly as well. I threaten to denounce him publicly to the gear junkies on www.telemarktips.com. This seems to shut him up. We reached the parking lot under mainly cloudless skies, fall colors blazing orange and yellow. I skied a couple of thousand vertical feet, my more appropriately-equipped partner rather more than that. Altogether, this was a very reasonable first ski for the emergent season, informed in turn by pathos, bathos and a touch of the sublime. Enjoy. Mark" markharf October 13, 2001 Muir snowfields, Mt. Rainier NP: " 'Traction Tires Required'. That's what the sign said, but they weren't necessary. But the snow was fine on Mt. Rainier! White was scattered amongst the warm-red blueberry bushes at 5,000 ft, much of the vegetation was covered at 6,000 ft., wind and snowdrifts at 6,200 ft, then hard crust, ice, rime ice, solid ice till about 7,000 ft. The first 1,500 vf down, were real nice--a skiff of cream on the firm snow that had filled in the suncups and produced the smooth, bright white, even surface. The 2nd run down was even better as the sun had softened the snow even more. At least some of this snow should last through winter, so these were our first turns of the new season! Nice. p.s. The walk out was tropical, ankle deep slush and water at times." acarey September 23, 2001 Black Tusk Microwave Area, South of Whistler, BC, Canada: "Sunday the 23rd surprised us with a beautiful high pressure day sandwiched in between wretched and unexpected weather systems. The crux of the trip was finding other skiers to go out for a walk with but we ended up with four - Gordon, Helen, myself and Mark. We left Vancouver at a very casual 7:30am and headed for the access road just South of Whistler(labelled Cheakamus Lake - keep right after the main road to the dump). After a brief stop to let Mark's poor 4x4 cool down, we made it to the gate (not vandalised again, fortunately) at 5000 feet and parked. The bugs weren't bad, and the wind kept things fairly cool. We took our time walking along the Microwave Tower ridge and working our way back to the large north facing snowfield located on the shoulder of the Tusk. The snow was not dreadfully suncupped but it did have a lot of pebbles and other volcanic debris scattered in it up high and was a little chippy in that one's boards didn't come round all the ! time. I used the excuse of carrying a camera on my front to make a lot of cheesy alpine turns but the other folks let fly with a full 1000 feet of real genuflecting teles for the benefit of my Super-8. We skied three or four other shortish (200 foot) patches on the way back to the car which was better than walking up them. Unfortunately, the 11 km road is probably snowed in now due to low freezing levels up here so we won't be seeing this area too much unless there's a warm spell to wash it all down. The whole trip was caught for posterity on Super-8 and, if there's a way to post it on the web - I'll try and put it up." Jonathan (meanteabag@yahoo.com) September 16, 2001 Observation Rock, Mt. Rainier NP: "My compulsive nature required me to put in a trip this month. Ron J's Pinnacle Glacier trip (see last week's report) had its attraction, but I wanted a long walk on this beautiful, late summer day in the mountains. I overflew Rainier a week ago in a commercial airliner (it seems much longer than just a week). The N side looked to have reasonable cover around Observation and Echo Rocks. So, I drove to Mowich Lake (about 10 miles of dirt road; the Park Service is now enforcing its entrance fee here). I hiked over Knapsack Pass and continued through Upper Spray Park to large snowfield between Observation and Echo Rocks. I skinned to the edge of the Russell Glacier and took a run (600vf). As expected it was fairly awful (the surface was cleaner than the Muir snowfield had been two weeks ago, but there were large, hard suncups and several runnels). I was not tempted to traverse over to the steeper part of the Fett Glacier to the W. I returned over Knapsack Pass. It was an enjoyable day (10 miles, 4000vf), but not much for skiing. Pray for snow (and other things)." Brent H September 16, 2001 Coleman Pinnacle/Ptarmigan Ridge (East side of Baker): "Anxious to see what the area in and around the east side of Baker had to offer this late in the year for skiing, we had planned to make a trip to Coleman Pinnacle about 1 week prior. Our group of 6 arrived at Artist Point between 9-9:30am. The weather on the drive up didn't look that promising with the thick marine cloud layer. Fortunately by the time we got into Glacier, it was blue skies throughout. Despite the low snowpack year, was surprised to still witness some fairly decent sized snowfields. We all gathered just below Coleman Pinnacle about 1 hr. from the parking lot to decide what would be our best opportunity to check out snow conditions for skiing. We attempted a north-to-northeast facing snowfield as our first run of the day. It was definitely worth forgetting. The suncups were well established and the snow was still quite firm. After some lunch, we abandoned that location and decided to head back to a south facing snowfield just below the saddle of the Coleman Pinnacle on the south side. This was our best move...With the sun beating down on it from the high-point of the day, it provided for a couple of inches of soft and essentially cup free. The first 300 feet provided for some decent Sept. skiing, however, the lower tongue beyond that was rather firm, which extended for another 200+ feet. After a few yo-yo runs and some photos, we decided that would be all the fun we would find on this day. Like Ron says, 'pray for snow' " David Coleman (dcoleman@bcallen.com) "It was the worst and the best. It was easily the worst September ski I have ever had, as far as the snow is concerned - mostly hard, dirty suncups which never really softened and provided a jarring ride. A ranger said we were skiing on snow from many seasons ago, and the level of consolidation supported that claim. We did find some softer, smoother, cleaner snow just below the Coleman Pinnacle, southeast side, and did most of our runs there. The best snow ended as the run steepened into a gully, but we skied that anyway, giving us a 500vf run. There were longer runs in the immediate area, but they were north-facing, hard, and unpleasantly sun-cupped. It was, however, probably the best we could expect given the previous winter's meager deposits. The weather was spectacular, the trail was easy, and the scenery was incomparable. Capping off the day was an encounter with a parking lot ranger enforcing the NW Forest Pass/Trail Parking permit project. I have a valid pass, but didn't display it since I wanted to get one of those little yellow envelopes to use to send in my protest letter (it is supposed to be used to send in $5 for a day pass, retroactive). It turns out that we just happened to be there on a very special, "educational enforcement" day. The rangers stuck the yellow envelopes on windshields while people were out on the trail, but were waiting to write out $30 tickets until they could confront the offenders directly. I challenged the ranger about the reported voluntary nature of the pass system, and he said there is nothing voluntary about it (if anyone has more info about this, please contact me). But before he could write me up, I pulled out my pass - he later thanked me for providing him with some excitement! Demonstrating the fairness of the whole system, Ben, who also got a yellow envelope while on the trail but did not have a pass in his wallet, drove off while the ranger was otherwise occupied and avoided the $30 ticket.". Photos from this trip can be viewed here. Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) September 9, 2001 Pinnacle Gl., Tatoosh Range, MRNP: "Woe, we knew it would be bad, but?? Saddled with the seemingly (at this time of year with so little snow) compulsive obsession to maintain the streak of year round continuous skiing, we turned to the only decent patch of snow that recent recon hikes disclosed: the Pinnacle Glacier. Tucked in between Castle and Pinnacle Peaks on the north facing aspect of the Tatoosh Range, it only gets about 3 or 4 hours of direct sunlight a day and thus has held snow fairly well in comparison to our other South Cascade stashes. The added bonus is that it is about an hour from the car, compared to the two to four hour carries that are common this time of year. The obvious disadvantage is its size, about 300 vf. But what the hey - if you're climbing what you're skiing anyway, what difference does it make if it's one long climb or a bunch of short ones [easy rationalization this time of year, huh? :) ]. After all, 10 laps on a 300 vf run is 3,000 vf, right? So if there's any other "streak mongers" out there feel free to take advantage of our smoothing off the peaks of the suncups for you. Take your boot/ski crampons 'cause it's pretty firm and has not been softening up much during the day as you can see by the pics. Hope this little jewel helps you get through the fall without blowing your streak, too. Pray for snow." ron jarvis Back to top |