tatoosh range. south approach ?

hi kids... anybody else crazy enough to think the tatoosh can be approached from the south during the winter ? anyone super-crazy enough to have tried/succeded ? care to share your war stories ? thanks. with any luck, this will keep me from looking for gainfull employment...

You can approach the Tatoosh from Packwood, preferably via Butter Creek. However, you might have to hike to the snow line - depends on the year.

Packwood Highway Shopper has a camera.

www.highwayshopper.com/Pkwdwthr.html

Th approach along Butter Creek is safe until you reach the main valley below the south side of the Tatoosh range. Multiple avalanche paths ( with overlapping runout zones ) feed into this area. In poor ( or overly sunny ) conditions the valley bottom is not a fun area.

If you want to travel via Tatoosh Ridge, you can gain the ridge from just outside Packwood via Butter Mountain, Which is basically the first small "peak" in the range. There is a trail of sorts, and again, you might have to hike at first. The terrain in the alpine along Tatoosh Ridge is intricate in a few places but the traverse itself is fairly straight-forward.

thanks, CM. that's roughly the route i was looking at. sounds like you've had good experiences there. the road branches and leaves the creek where the canyon tightens. any experience with taking that branch ? i'm just a big slut for big open bowls like this one

Packwood Highway Shopper has a camera.

www.highwayshopper.com/Pkwdwthr.html

Thanks for the webcam link (and the Tatoosh access info too), I'm always looking to find more webcams to add to my Mountain Webcams pages (that link loads a HUGE page with 229 webcams, for broadband internet and fast computers and big monitors ONLY).

WSDOT has an excellent webcam at Packwood Airport, with views in 4 directions. In clear weather, the NW view even has a partial look at the upper slopes of Rainier sticking above a nearby ridge.

www.wsdot.wa.gov/aviation/WebCam/Packwood.htm

thanks amar. i dig your website !

Amar has the most useful website in the Cascades. His site made substantial contributions to ~37 of my powder days in two seasons.

For FunHog.

Road 5270? This road stops about 1 kilometre from what I would consider the entrance to those bowls. Avalanche terrain begins when you leave the forest and notice openings on the forest floor with small avalanche paths on the skier's right, and a very large, open avalanche path on skier's left.

I've traveled this route twice ( once in fairly spooky conditions ). I certainly won't make that mistake again. Have not skiied the narrow bowl to the skier's right where road 5270 ends, so I have no comments. IMHO, this is a fantastic spring tour.

If you're a slut for big open bowls, and haven't skiied this terrain.

1. The entire valley bottom ( after the road ends ) is an enormous terrain trap.
2. There are about 360 degrees of avalanche terrain above you. ( Lots of aspect changes. )
3. Terrain has all three elevation bands: btl, tl, atl.
4. Starting zones are large and open.
5. Combination of open paths and channeled paths.
6. Plentiful terrain traps. Lots of confined terrain, many line-of-sight obstacles when traveling in trees.
7. Days with good ski quality and poor visibility are the most dangerous.
8. Days with sun and poor ski quality are dangerous.
9. This is definitely a place where I worry about natural releases descending from above.