 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| This old version of Trip Reports is no longer being updated.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. |
| November 2001 Trip Reports |
November 26, 2001 Stevens Pass Backcountry: "With the ski area still closed and all the new snow, it seemed a natural to try the ski runs and venture off the backside if things looked good. At 4000' there is about 20 inches on the ground and it is easily over 36 inches near 5600'. The snowcat drivers at Stevens created great climbing paths to the top of the lifts,so skinning up was easy. The steeper terrain still needs another foot or more snow. Chief and Double Diamond are still very "brushy" and for those without concern for their bases. It's still too early for the backside. The snow quality was excellent - powder turns top to bottom." Zap November 25, 2001 Bearpaw Mtn., Mt. Baker Backcountry: "Five of us met in the dark in the usual corner of the usual sea of asphalt by the interstate. Drove up the Mt. Baker Highway, turned left on Canyon Creek Rd. Found snow on the road at about 2500 feet, nicely compacted by the giant truck tires of a fleet of snowmobilers from the previous day. Turned off on F. R. 3160 and drove with some minor trepidation to 3300 feet, where we parked. One of us had somehow forgotten to bring poles, but by judicious use of approximately three and a half miles of duct tape was able to fashion interesting facsimiles out of saplings, parts of two avalanche shovels, and the tops from a couple of disposable coffee cups that were rolling around on the floor of the truck. We kept offering to trade off the available poles amongst the five of us, but the more observant in the group noticed that she was consistently outpacing the rest of the group, and kept having to wait for us to catch up. We toured up the road to the trailhead at 4800', then through woods and glades to a series of N-NE bowls topping out at 6060' on the southern flank of Bearpaw Mountain. Saw only one snowmobiler all day, and he was either totally deafened or fully clueless as to the sorts of things that interested us, like snow stability-though he'd just traversed alone through a 35-40 degree windloaded bowl. Lots of nice looking terrain up there, with bowls and glades in all directions surrounding small, horn-shaped peaks. Some of it had been thrashed pretty good by the snow machines, but there was plenty left for us. There was much discussion amongst ourselves about stability, as some of our party had been skiing nearby on Friday, digging frightening pits and/or setting off minor sluffs and slabs. I did a hasty pit during the discussions on a NE aspect on the lee side of a ridge, getting a 5, but as we all noted on the way up the feel of the snow had been changing drastically and unpredictably from pocket to pocket as we approached the ridge. Definitely worth exercising a bit of caution wherever there's been recent windloading. In the end, the skiing was excellent: a couple of laps in 12-16 inches of powder on a firm base. Visibility, of course, was somewhat questionable, with flat light getting flatter by the minute in increasing light snow, and the wise skiers in our group tended to hold back a bit in order to allow others the opportunity to locate the hidden rolls and sudden drop-offs...not to mention the occasional invisible snow machine track from the previous day's highmarking competitions. Our pole-less skier looked as graceful as the best of us, turning fast and confident with a mass of Voilé-black metal and duct tape in one hand, a moderate-sized tree-trunk in the other. I must say, all were unfailingly polite in waiting for me at intervals all the way back to the truck, my legs all rubbery and soft on the long, logging road descent. This is one of the perquisites of those who write the histories, you know: everyone is gracious and polite, and offers at least the appearance of respect, whether deserved or not. Enjoy." Mark November 24-25-26, 2001 close to meadows, Mt. Hood: "Thanks everybody for your snow ju-ju. we had a stellar weekend we hiked above meadows to 30- 60mph winds but were rewarded withsome great skiing on the windward sides. sat was good and the winds were less on sunday and no wind and sunny skies on monday, looks like a better start to the ski season. The avie danger on leeward slopes is going high and the sun may help some. I'll let you know tomorrow. It's all still pretty thin but some good sking can still be had." tom (telmrk@yahoo.com) November 24, 2001 Chinook Pass, WA: "My usual late-Nov trip to the pass turned out to be a usual powder trip with very few people. About 3' of consolidated powder made skiing delightfull, but trail-breaking a chore. Two of us broke a trail counter-clockwise around Naches Peak. The south slope had the best snow from the ridge top for about 1000'. The east basin was blasted by 50mph wind at the top, and provided a entertaining skiing. It may be the last skiing of the season at Chinook." Kenji November 24, 2001 Mt Baker/Bagley lakes: "Skinned up through quite a few sledders, boarders and smokers on the edge of the Baker ski area to the edge of Austin Pass/Table Mountain. Two feet of fairly fresh snow kept cool by overcast skys temps about 30 and not much wind below 5700ft. Skied the shots kicking up a hint of dust down towards Bagley lakes with a half dozen other snowlovers, skin track back up laid by others allowed a second easy run, No sluffing noted and snow seemed well bonded to the old rain crust below. Saw that the area was going to open on Sunday but it looked a bit thin still for a lot of traffic. Nice first day out for the old legs. Back to the Mountaineers Hut for soup and a delightful leg of lamb by Loren and Becky!" Cwiley November 24, 2001 Crystal Mt. Backcountry: "Jill and I were on our way to Cayuse Pass when I read in the morning paper that Crystal would open on Sunday. Seeing most backcountry folks would be heading to the Pass, we headed for Crystal. Great choice. The area had a few kids and parents sledding on the lower slopes. We headed up chair 4 and then up chair 9. Those nice snowcat drivers made a perfect single track up the hill which made for easy climbing. The base had about a foot of snow and there was about 30 inches up high. Open slopes were windloaded but next to the trees it was "dusty". I thought I heard Jill barking with joy as we descended the deserted slopes." Zap November 18, 2001 Muir snow field: "All of the snow Andy had on Saturday must have blown away as most every place above Panorama point was very icy. East wind blew all day. Ron Jarvis, Dorothea Driggers and myself traversed west at 8000' across boilerplate to Pebble creek drainage. There we found some "softer snow" deposited and made some decent turns. Maybe 25 skiers/boarders total, quite a few had crampons. Better skiing will come." Robie November 18, 2001 Mt. Hood - zig-zag glacier: "Well, we need more snow really bad. The palmer chair is open at timberline but I'm not ready to pay for boiler plate. We hiked up on the west side of the palmer chair and headed for illumation rock. We were well rewarded for our work. The snow was about two inches of confectitures sugar on a firm base. Very FUN, Getting back down is still very challenging though. We did manange to pick our way down to just above the lodge but it is very thin, Think SNOW and it will come. Have FUN" tom (telmrk@yahoo.com) November 17, 2001 Skyline Divide: "After the heavy rains, we took the opportunity to access Skyline Divide. The road was clear to the trailhead, (rare, with enough snow to ski up above) and we set out under a frozen forest....gradually increasing snowpack soon became a skiable snowpack....after gaining the alpine, every aspect of Skyline Divide was skiable under a fresh layer of pow. We skied high speed GS tele turns for three runs. The base was, obviously, well consolidated and the pow on top had bonded well. (there was an interesting slump-creep fracture occuring, presumably, during the rains in a loaded part of the first bowl.) Light winds blew up the bowls, creating sastrugi formations along the rims.....a perfect day in a not-so perfect time....peace. T" Toby Tortorelli November 17, 2001 Twin Lakes, Mt. Baker backcountry: "Touring possibilities have been seriously truncated by the recent rains here in the land of smiling salmon:; much of the formerly abundant early-season snowpack has long since washed into the Pacific, while access to a lot of prime high country was abruptly shut down by the state DOT, which is curiously reluctant to clear the heavy snowfall and massive slides on the North Cascades Highway. I admit to feeling surprisingly glum for someone who's skied each of the past 6 weekends, though not nearly as glum as those waiting for the ski areas to open. Two of us consider touring possibilities while cruising up the Mt. Baker Highway early this morning. My partner is driving, sometimes pulling over abruptly to wave various maps around, pointing and gesticulating and speaking emphatically. I sit in the passenger seat, breaking in periodically to lay out the elaborate conclusions I've drawn based on the skeletal (and wholly inadequate) information gleaned from certain weather-related websites. We turn into the Canyon Creek Road, then pull back out on the highway. Up the Twin Lakes Road to where it is blocked (around 3000 feet) by a gargantuan chunk of fallen tree. Ok, back down to Canyon Creek. No, back up the hill to the fallen tree. We boot up the road for a mile or more and a thousand or so vertical feet. Patches of snow appear, first along the verge, then covering the road: old, refrozen, chunky stuff covered with an inch of dry powder. There is steady snow at the bottom of the switchbacks, 4100 feet, followed by deeper snow, and deeper still. At Twin Lakes (5200 feet) there is about three feet of old snow, with several inches of very appealing powder on top. We choose a SE facing line on Winchester Mountain for our first run, and push uphill. My partner, the Pellastova Demon, is again on light, flimsy and in many respects wholly inadequate gear, including bindings which feature tiny, insignificant-looking metal pins to hold boots to skis. I am on my accustomed K2's, mounted with enough manufactured metal products to sink the average aircraft carrier. We turn around at the ridge, 6000 feet, in 4-5 inches of really nice powder over a perfectly adequate base. A bit of surface hoar gleams on the surface; the lakes sparkle in brilliant sunshine far below; snow-covered mountains are lined up to the horizons in all directions. Life is good. My partner makes ready the camera, and I start down the first, steep slope, sinking into my first turn. Next thing I know something decidedly weird is happening to my left ski, and almost instantly I am tumbling oddly, skis hanging from their leashes. I come to rest after rolling once, and I begin to take stock. Both release plates let go, ok. One binding heel lever also let go, and the full binding is sitting in the snow near me still attached to its TRP plate. Never seen that before. Interesting. All body parts are apparently within their normal functional range. Ah, here's the problem: the toe plate on my Chili cracked and ejected my boot from the binding. It takes a good twenty minutes or more to figure out a way to duct tape the binding into serviceability, insert all the variously released bits and pieces into the appropriate slots, grooves and orifices, and start the slow, sad kick turns and traverses through the powder down to the lakes. I dare not do anything abrupt for fear of bursting the tape holding me in, and it takes a while to descend. The Pellastova Demon -not a bad sort, really- is kind enough to make some minimal effort to hide his glee at the quality of the skiing and the variety of the terrain....but I can see it in his descent when I briefly look up from my long, straight traverses across the bowl and through the glades. Near the bottom I hazard a few turns at slow speed on approximately 10 degree slopes. The duct tape is stretching, and my left ski vacillates unmistakably when I direct it one way or the other. Best to go easy and resume the traverses; I've still got a thousand feet of steep, narrow, bumpy logging road lined with rocks to descend. Again I ponder that slender little pin that attaches my partner's boots to his skis. By all accounts, the skiing was quite good: turning sticky where the sun got to it, but still powdery in the shade. There had been some small slides, in addition to some interesting snow-creep-cum-slides, during the rains, but everything seemed quite worry-free today. Lots of nice terrain up there, and the forest roads are driveable to near 4000 feet, which offers interesting backcountry possibilities for the coming week. One hopes, anyway. There is more rain as well as more snow in the forecast. On the way home we stopped at the just-opened-for-business Glacier Ski Shop, which was happy to pull a Cobra binding off the shelf for me, discount it generously, and send me home happy. There'll be more skiing next weekend, right? If you're looking for me, I'll be the one with the massive metallic scrap heap attached to each ski, and the huge roll of duct tape on each ski pole. Enjoy." Mark November 17, 2001 Muir, Mt. Rainier: "Beautiful day, we were above the clouds. The mountain looked real nice--all new, bright white (Even Cathedral and other high rock faces were plastered white with rime ice from 100+ mph winds this week). The foot of rain the last week essentially wiped out much of the snow below 7,000 feet. Friday it rained at 9,000 ft. Friday night left a couple of inches of new snow down to 4,500 feet. We carried skis a couple of miles and 2,000 vf to above Pebble Creek, then skinned up to below Moon Rocks where the new powder was just a skiff over super hard super slick ice. A couple of ski moutaineers told us they cramponed down from Camp Muir to Pebble rather than ski. From where we stopped to Pebble creek was really nice, a couple of inches of new and a bunch of wind-transported rounded crystals yielding a total of 2-6 inches of powder above a highly finished concrete base. Skiing was fast and smooth. We traversed to ski down east of Panorama Point to about Golden Gate, where we put our skis on our packs above Golden Gate and walked out the remaining 1.5 miles." Andy Carey November 12, 2001 Washington Pass: "Warm and raining in Bellingham, rain in Sedro Wooley, in Concrete, in Marblemount and up the North Cascades Highway over the passes until, by some miracle of microclime, it started snowing just past Washington Pass down to the hairpin turn. Me and a carload of mostly novice snowshoers climbed from the highway up towards the spires in astonishingly heavy, unconsolidated slop, turning around after 1200 feet or so. Wildly exaggerated weighting and unweighting, combined with loud grunting and a certain amount of self-talk, helped me link some reasonable turns until we reached the lower section. There, a steep, narrow gully, with shallow snow barely covering invisible rocks stripped me of my dignity and left me gibbering nonsensically. Oh yes, it was ugly; for a short time my very survival was in question. Meanwhile, my snowshoeing friends alternately butt-glissaded, plunge-stepped and staggered somewhat drunkenly down through the muck, sometimes overtaking me and sometimes falling behind. Eventually we broke out into the open slopes above the highway and I salvaged a last few faltering turns, skiing directly to the passenger door of my van. We all clambered grinning into our seats, instantly steaming all the windows opaque, and drove back up to the pass....where it started raining again. Only about 18 inches of snow left at the hairpin, maybe 2 feet up above, with rain in the forecast. Not looking good, nosir, although I guess it could be worse; it could be the Wasatch, where they have not been skiing at all these past five weeks. Enjoy." Mark November 11, 2001 Mt. Baker Backcountry: "Transceiver practice was cancelled this morning due to apparent lack of interest, so I slept blissfully late, hung around the house uselessly through what remained of the morning and into the afternoon, finally hitting the backcountry after 2:00 PM. The snow pack, recently several feet deep and powdery, has dwindled to under a foot at the ski area parking lot (and waterlogged to the point that you can see right through it to the yellow center line on the highway). It was quite a scene up there: troupes of small children were rampaging everywhere, towing strange sliding devices around, with bunches of harassed-looking adults struggling to keep up; there were dozens of clots of snowboarders sitting around smoking cigarettes between launching themselves off various improbable-looking places; I even ran into two rather overweight and clumsy-looking gentlemen who were smoking actual cigars while hiking along the trail in their street clothes. Fortunately, a mile or two of uphill walking brought me to deeper snow, surprisingly virginal (and deserted) slopes and almost perfect spring conditions; a couple of inches of corn and the remnants of last week's snowfall on a bombproof base. Good visibility, too. I really wished I'd come earlier, but as it was I dropped into a variety of short, steep shots, skied reasonably well, and was on my way home again by 4:00. A nice little break from ordinary life. Having said all that, it's also true that if it doesn't snow some more pretty soon I'll begin to get very irritated. Enjoy." Mark November 10, 2001 Sahale: "Good skiing on Sahale and Sahale Arm from 8600' down to Cascade pass. The south facing slope was partly soft by mid-day and made for good corn turning on top of frozen crust. Not a great amount of snow at Cascade pass. A few climax slides up on the arm had spilled down into the lake, but this didn't happen on Saturday. From Cascade Pass there was only a bit of trail skiing before finding p-tex seeking trail rocks. The road was gated just before MP20, leaving a 3-mile hike up to the Cascade Pass trailhead." Bill F November 9, 2001 Muir snowfield, Mt. Rainier NP: "We arrived at Paradise in warm sunshine. We could have skinned from the parking lot (coverage-wise), but chose to hike because the snow was frozen solid and packed on the paths (strange - telemetry said low at Paradise was 40, after a 54 degree day). Getting up Pan Point without crampons was a bit tedious because the snow was so hard. We changed to skis for ascending a little above Pebble Creek because the snow was mostly boilerplate. There were only small areas which had a veneer of loose snow on top. We stopped climbing at about 11am at 9K when it became apparent that the sunshine was not going to be able to soften the snow/ice surface; it was moderately windy and that seemed to be enough to keep the snow solidly frozen. We traversed over to the west side of the Muir, hoping to find some loose surface snow in the lee of little ridges, and were somewhat successful, but the first 1000vf of skiing were mostly on the smooth icy surface. Below about 8K, however, we began to find great, spring-like corn snow wherever the slope was tilted toward the sun. The highlight of the day came when we dropped off the ridge just below McClure Rock and skied down the SE facing slopes, where the surface snow had loosened in the sun. There were 1-3 inches of silky corn on a firm base - pretty much just like Ron reported for the previous Sunday. We skied down to around the Golden Gates trail and checked out the possibilities for returning to the car via Edith Basin, since both the chute on Pan Point and the trail route below it were not at all inviting (shallow snowpack, lots of rocks). After a snack rest, we climbed back up to the top of the ridge near McClure Rock and did a run on more beautiful corn - the best run of the day. Then we got our packs and dropped into Edith Basin, requiring a couple of steps across bare grass at one point, but otherwise skiable all the way to the trail at the bridge over Edith Creek; the absence of rocks on this part made the skiing fun on more smooth corn. The asphalt trail back to the parking lot had compact snow, and we made it without injuring our ski bases. Photos from this trip can be viewed here." Charles Eldridge (tay@turns-all-year.com) November 4+6+7, 2001 Mt. Hood: "On sunday karen and I went to Mt hood meadows parking lot to see if there was enough snow, There wasn't but we took our ski's for a hike anyway. We went to the top of the cascade chair and there was enough snow over by the texas run to get some turns. It was very windy on the ridge but nice in the gully. We were able to ski back down mitchell creek almost to the top of the yellow chair. Sometimes it was just on a few feet of snow. I'll wait for more snow before going back but it was a beautiful day and we were the only one's around. tuesday/11/6/01 Mt. Hood timberline, The resort was open during the weekend (barely) and we just wanted to hike up for the workout. We cut over to the palmer snowfield. It was shear ice, We only went up about half way because we didn't bring our crampons, My buddy summed it up " It s*cked greatly" You can ski down most of way back to the parking lot in a few of the gully's but they too are very icy and studded with rocks. ZigZag glacier 11/07/01 Another sunny day so we had to go. We hiked to just below crater rock, We had our crampons today so the going was easier,The skiing was pretty good as the sun had been on it all day without much wind. The skiing to the parking lot still "s*cked greatly" though. It's still skiing and we did have FUN." tom baker November 4, 2001 Paradise - Mt. Rainier NP: "A massive lenticular capping the summit greeted us on our arrival at Paradise - that and Brent Hostetler with his partner Eric. Plumes of snow boiled off Gibraltar and Anvil. Skies were generally clear with afternoon forecast for deteriorating weather. We opted to skip the trek up the Muir Snowfield due to the anticipated high winds up there, and seek some lower wind-loaded slopes in the meager snow pack. The existing base was bomber solid, almost (but not quite) favoring boot crampons up Pan face. We found an east facing aspect that had about an inch of sun softened corn on a solid base and yoyo'd it into mid afternoon. It may have been the best skiing we've had this year; silky smooth. We'll need more snow up there soon to get much more good skiing in." ron jarvis November 3-4, 2001 Heather/Maple Passes: "Short Version: plenty of snow, rock skis not required, consolidated powder. Windy Saturday night, depositing 4"+ on leeward slopes. Rising temps. on Sunday deteriorated snow quality. Drizzle at trailhead by 1pm. Wonderful start to the season! Details: Started the season with two days and one night up in the Maple Pass area. Most of Saturday is covered in Mark's comments below. We skied a bit closer to Maple pass than the others up there that day and found the best snow on N through E aspects. Sunset Saturday night was beautiful, as was the moonrise and sunrise Sunday morning. Sunday morning we had the area all to ourselves and skied untracked slopes just inside NCNP near Maple Pass. Last run was down the steepish east side of the Lake Ann basin; ski cuts did nothing, but the wind-deposited snow lead us to ski down in a moderately treed chute. It warmed up considerably late Sunday morning and early afternoon and just started to drizzle soon after we reached the car. Pictures and story line are here. A disappointing side note to consider: our car was broken into at the Rainy Pass trailhead sometime Saturday night, via breaking the rear passenger window. DOT noticed it Sunday morning and along with a State Trooper kept an eye on the open car that morning. The good news is that the only things missing were some keys and a bag with some socks and a warming filter for my camera in it. Wallets, two pairs of skis, and more was left untouched-odd, but lucky. This was a minor blemish on a wonderful weekend. " Phil Higuera (phiguera@u.washington.edu) with Matt Peters November 3, 2001 Maple/Heather Pass Backcountry: "Myself and a partner drove down from Bellingham late Friday night, slept soundly at the Maple/Heather Pass trailhead and then lazed around for what must've been hours waiting for the sun to reach the van; I guzzled strong coffee while munching away at a big stack of cream cheese sandwiches, she occasionally stuck her head clear of the sleeping bag for just long enough to ask how the sunshine was progressing down the opposite hillside in our direction. We finally got underway just as folks started arriving from both Seattle and the Methow, including two friends from Seattle who had agreed to meet us at some ungodly hour, but had apparently been distracted by festivities of some sort (and the consumption of legal intoxicants) the night before. The uptrack was obviously set by sadists with fat skins and tall heel lifts, and we all thrashed and cussed on the steeper sections. The snow depth varied on either side of about three feet of mostly dry, consolidated powder, but it also featured a very breakable melt-freeze crust up to about 6000 feet, with suncrust above that on sunward slopes. North and northwest aspects held reasonable powder, wind affected in places but apparently stable to about 40 degrees. Below 6000 feet the best skiing was out in the sun, where the crust had melted sufficiently to offer a fun mix of soft crust with now-damp snow underneath. I concentrated on hanging on for dear life in the turn transitions, stopping every dozen turns to huff and pant, while my partner launched graceful jump turns by the dozens. When I ventured ahead into the shadows just above the lake I hit a barely survivable breakable crust, in which I managed to link a total of three turns (after a couple of tries at it), whereupon I declared myself victorius. By the time the four of us headed out, the trail through the woods had metamorphosed into a rough approximation of a luge run, with a narrow, icy track surrounded by any or all of: 1) Soft, comfy powder snow; 2) Deadly crust masquerading as soft, comfy powder; 3) Deadly crust hiding a variety of hard and immovable objects; or 4) wet, unconsolidated slush barely covering rocks, stumps and holes in the very fabric of the universe. None of this seemed to present any real problems to my companions, who repeatedly went rocketing on ahead, then waited politely while I struggled to catch up. Great terrain up there in all directions, and easy access from the highway as long as it lasts. Enjoy. Mark " markharf November 3, 2001 Muir / Mt. Rainier: "Bluebird day. Climbed to 8,700-8,800. Lots of new snow building up the pack and filling in the holes. Skied down 1000 vf on packed powder, 1000 on ice, 1000 on corn. about 10-14 inches of consolidated snow just above Paradise. Need more new or it won't be legit to ski (too much chance of damaging veg). abc" acarey (careyab@yahoo.com) November 2, 2001 Heather Pass : " Weather reports were calling for a 3000' freezing level on Friday, so my house mate and I skipped work to head up once again to Washington Pass. We reached the Heather Pass trailhead by 8:30 am to find some very balmy temperatures. There was well over 2' of snow at the car and the trail had a nice skin track laid in from the day before. It was nearly raining in the forest as snow melted of the trees. While the weather had appeared threating, the clouds were definitely burning off as we climbed above timberline. The heather pass/ maple pass area is a series of gentle ridgelines and open bowls just under 7000'. It was high enough to have avoided the melt-out going on lower down, and we found excellent skiing in about 10" of wind compacted powder on a plenty deep base. Conditions were somewhat treacherous on lee side slopes and I managed to ski cut a 12" deep, 60' wide slab that scoured a long north facing coulior. After that we stuck to mellower slopes before a thrilling run down the trail at dusk. Temps are currently in the high 40's at the passes but the freezing level is dropping to 3000' for the next couple days. Might have to skip work again this week!" darin Back to top |