The "Seattle Skintrack" on Table Mountain

Another sunny day, another group of people with no mountain sense.  Do they not know that they're skinning straight up a popular descent route, fully exposed to any/everyone that drops in above them?  The way the Arm was breaking yesterday and the NWAC "considerable" rating for today - clearly down the the lake and back up the road is the better way to get back up.  It might take an extra few minutes or so but 1. you'll get a full length run and 2. you won't be in harm's way the entire time.

These are probably the same people that drove down the hill going 30mph while avoiding all the pullouts.    >

You're absolutely right - that's a complete noob move. But in defense of my new hometown, I think its just as likely a group of bro's from WWU. Either way, I hope that you or someone else nearby had a chance to straighten them out. Hope their ears are burning right now too.

Not defending anyone, I certainly know this can be annoying, and I'm not too familiar with that area (I don't recognize the specific terrain feature) but ...

Do you think it possible they knowingly chose to go straight up in order to evaluate the safety of coming down?

Did they get blasted with folks coming down the entire time they were climbing up?

Many ski routes are best done climbing/skinning the descent route so you can assess the conditions before you drop into a suicide run ....

Just trying to be a little devil's advocate before we paint them too poorly ...

You're right, it could be a bunch of WWU or UBC kids. But IME, after watching that thing get put in time after time year after year, it's usually the older Schoeller crowd vs. young noobs. Maybe this one is the "Vancouver Variation" to the "Seattle Skintrack", which is usually a bit farther looker's right past the horn.

And as for assessing the snowpack on the way up - that's a pretty good move and easily done w/o putting yourself in harm's way with the many test slopes on the way up the road. I can see climbing what you're going to ski if you're ski mountaineering on Shuksan or the Gervasuitti Coulour or something like that but not in the urban assault backcountry of Blueberry Chutes/Table.

I didn't watch them the entire time they were climbing to see if they got dropped in on because I was keeping tabs on my crew and our situation across the way, but I've been on top over there when "those people" are climbing up. It sucks. It's hard to see all the way down some of those lines until you're in them, so if you drop in from the top and you're going over the rollover and see that CF down there... oops, sorry if I sluff you out or cut something down on you but I'm not stopping until I'm safe. I'll do what I can to help once I'm safe but I won't be held responsible for your bad decision.

Not defending anyone, I certainly know this can be annoying, and I'm not too familiar with that area (I don't recognize the specific terrain feature) but ...

Do you think it possible they knowingly chose to go straight up in order to evaluate the safety of coming down? 

Did they get blasted with folks coming down the entire time they were climbing up? 

Many ski routes are best done climbing/skinning the descent route so you can assess the conditions before you drop into a suicide run ....

Just trying to be a little devil's advocate before we paint them too poorly ...

Uhh.. no.

I personally wouldn't skin a 38-45° slope if I was questioning conditions and trying to eval... this is not deep backcountry, it's within 15 minutes from the car. There is a convenient road that a fit party can climb in 30-40 minutes to the top of this terrain, assessing steep road cuts along the way before ever exposing yourself to hazards such as windloading, cornices, large steep slopes, multiple parties skiing on top of you, etc. It gets tons of traffic, from above.

Just a dumb choice and a serious lack of situational awareness.

Probably the same idiots who were skinning up the center of a major groomed run with multiple blind rollovers at Stevens a few days ago.

I don't get what the big deal is. That uptrack gets set all the time (albeit usually further climbers left).

Why don't you complain about traffic? Or maybe government indecisiveness? Oooh, I know, complain about little to no progress on climate change!


After skiing down blueberry/table it's natural to turn around and head back up. It's the fastest way back up and if you are comfortable skiing the slope then you should be comfortable skinning the slope (where you are likely placing less stress on the snowpack). Also, in case you are new to skinning in North America, we like to go STRAIGHT UP everything, not dink around a mile climbers left. :