Secret stashes, exploration, solitude, and more

Jim, I'm not talking about remote ski desinations with difficult access as these will most likely be preserved. Rather it's the little known accessible ones that are at risk of being over run if they are popularized.<br><br>

And no matter what, there are alwasy the tracks you leave, which can be followed...

<br><br>I think this is what separates backcountry ski exploring from other types - if anyone has been there since the last significant snowfall, there will be tracks. Their existance leading the way can be enough to disrupt the experience for someone who doesn't know the area. The Slot Couloir is a good example of what I'm talking about. Check out www.mtnphil.com and read the trip reports from years past about the Slot Couloir (Enigma Gully). They discovered it, climbed it, scoped it out and finally went back and skied it. They had little knowledge about it before exploring as this was before a guide book or it became popular. There is a reason it was dubbed 'Enigma Gully'. Contrast this with the scene a few weeks ago - it had been talked about on this board a few times, there is a step by step account of the tour in a guidebook and it was downright crowded. Regardless of whether someone had read the guidebook or not, they couldn't have had the same experience. I'm making a value judgement here that this is worthwhile and should be protected where appropiate; your opinion may differ. I'm arguing that the 'secret stashes' should be protected, not for those who already know and ski them, but rather for those who have yet to discover them.

I think we pretty much agree on basic principles - sounds like your thinking is not as absolute as your original statment could be read to imply. And I doubt you'd find my "not-in-guidebook" TRs spoiling your pleasure.<br><br>But alas, the population is growing and more new people are buying BC gear and there are boot tracks running the length of the Ptarmigan Traverse and well into the Pickets too, and I guess I choose to accept these facts, which all trend toward limiting the "field of discovery." Fortunately, we live near a rather large mountain range that as others have noted, is not considered one of the glamorous ski ranges.<br><br>But if I want adventure and discovery (which I do find from time to time in my own timid way), I may need to get up earlier, take a weekday off work, or otherwise work to avoid finding that my imagined untouched treasure is in fact someone else's personal playground. This is the nature of easily-accessed areas near a major city. Fortunately, though, from what I hear we have it much better in this regards than folks in the Bay Area or worse yet, Salt Lake City.

Well, I can live with the fact that folks want to be secretive about some tours. It is kinda weird to want to post reports in code for your buddies. Kinda makes one feel like an outsider, but I can live with that too. Its most certain as a dog driver that I approach the bc in ways and with techniques that many folks don't agree with.<br><br>I DO want to thank you folks for the non- guidebook routes that you do share.

I had a few days off this week so I was up skiing and just stumbled upon this interesting discussion. It continues to pleasantly surprise me that things always seem to stay civil and respectful here. <br><br>I've got one thing to ask of everyone. Is anyone having problems finding fresh lines? I'm certainly not this year thank God. Is it actually happening that people are going to their spots and finding them destroyed? I just have a hard time believing it is actually happening. But I want to hear what other people think.<br><br>Also, does it really "ruin" the experience when other people are around? I guess there is something to be the only party on a line or in a drainage or something, and obviously there can be a point of oversaturation, but at least in my case I've had far more positive interactions with other bc skiers than negative ones. <br><br>

I think this is what separates backcountry ski exploring from other types - if anyone has been there since the last significant snowfall, there will be tracks.  Their existance leading the way can be enough to disrupt the experience for someone who doesn't know the area....<br><br>Regardless of whether someone had read the guidebook or not, they couldn't have had the same experience.  I'm making a value judgement here that this is worthwhile and should be protected where appropiate;  your opinion may differ.

<br><br>Matt is onto something subtle and, to my thinking, important.  There is something special about backcountry skiing.  Anyone who has done a tour, even a popular tour, when there are no tracks in sight has experienced the feeling of being really alone in the mountains.  This feeling is even more intense if, as far as you know, you're the first person to ever visit a place on skis.<br><br>In summer, climbers leave no tracks--at least no tracks you can see more than a few feet away.  So in summer you can stand on a summit and not know whether anyone else is nearby.  In winter, on the other hand, when skiers leave tracks visible a mile away, you can have proof you're alone.  That's a powerful experience and, as Matt points out, a valuable one.<br><br><br>

But a simple cure to being devalued by information is to simply not pay attention to the information.  Anyone who wants to figure out their own Ptarmigan Traverse has all the opportunity they need - just don't read all the Alpenglow history reports and it's all new to you!

<br><br>I've thought about the impact that my historical work has on awareness of obscure routes in the Cascades.  I don't put a lot of route directions in my notes--I focus on people, dates and stories.  I find that history enriches my experience in the mountains more than diminishing it, but that may not be true for everyone.  I'm not as enthusiastic about guidebooks, which is why I haven't written one.  Writing a guidebook would be ten times easier than writing a history.<br><br><br>

I hate to put it to you, but this is Washington State.  The word will never get out about powder skiing here (thankfully).

<br><br>I'm not so confident about that.  To my thinking, powder skiing in Washington is way underrated in the press.  I can easily imagine that changing.  In a few years, we Washington skiers may find ourselves in the same situation David Laskin describes regarding Northwest weather in his book "Rains All the Time":<br><br>

So we've come full circle: from pioneers in the 1840s and 1850s earnestly trying (and failing) to persuade the folks back East that the Northwest has 'the most equable and healthful climate on the globe' to their descendants in the 1990s earnestly insisting that the rumors are true--it's every bit as bad as you always heard it was.  And then some.

<br>I'm not so confident about that.  To my thinking, powder skiing in Washington is way underrated in the press.  I can easily imagine that changing.  In a few years, we Washington skiers may find ourselves in the same situation David Laskin describes regarding Northwest weather in his book "Rains All the Time":<br><br>"So we've come full circle: from pioneers in the 1840s and 1850s earnestly trying (and failing) to persuade the folks back East that the Northwest has 'the most equable and healthful climate on the globe' to their descendants in the 1990s earnestly insisting that the rumors are true--it's every bit as bad as you always heard it was.  And then some."

<br>Shhhhhhh!!!<br><br> <br>