Heli bombing near Steven's Pass

Is that the slope you cross to get from the ski area to Josephine Lake?  Just curious, since wolfs was inquiring about that area just yesterday:

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=12869.0

I wonder how they determined that nobody was touring around there before they bombed it?

Is that the slope you cross to get from the ski area to Josephine Lake?  Just curious, since wolfs was inquiring about that area just yesterday:

www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboardi...ex.php?topic=12869.0

I wonder how they determined that nobody was touring around there before they bombed it?

I think it is the same area.

They had the entire backside closed for lift served all morning, and I assumed the Nordic center was blocked off also. The helicopter was flying back towards the Nordic center, maybe based from there?

They seemed to only bomb the stuff draining towards the backside lifts, so it would be fairly unlikely anyone would be camped that close to the resort; my lady and I have talked about doing a quick overnight by the lake for a while. For what it is worth, I would not think of camping under any of that, especially given those conditions.

I think they have done this for a few years, and after having a tower mashed last year I am sure they are trying to be proactive. I am on the fence- I don't want to be blown to bits while touring, and for sure didn't like seeing those lines get ruined,  but I cannot imagine how much it cost them to fill up a snowcat full of high voltage electricians and tower repairmen in the middle of the scariest avy cycle in years, and repair those things in a blizzard! Especially since I am probably using that electricity now...

I'm sure they took reasonable and appropriate precautions. It's just interesting (in a perverse sort of way) to consider how backcountry skiers could have confounded them. Here's the route that wolfs asked about:

Has anyone ever tried a circle route in the Stevens area that involves "the other backside", specifically by dropping down either Cowboy or the powerlines to the north fork of Tunnel Ck, ascending it to the saddle near  Swimming Deer, contouring to Josephine, then exiting to Mill Valley via the approx PCT route as in Kirkendall? If so any tips & tricks?

This route sneaks around to Josephine Lake from behind, not entering Mill Creek until it passes right under the blast zone near Lake Susan Jane. The odds that somebody would ski this route on the very day that helicopter bombing was occurring, and would wander into the blast zone without knowing what was about to happen, is small. But if they did, I don't think there's any way the avalanche control people would know they were coming. It makes you pause.

It reminds me of an incident that happened to me a few years ago:

"Friendly Fire at Washington Pass" .

Lowell

Scary! And maybe more so because about 90% of my current daydreaming is about this years North Cascades Highway opening...

I also wonder if we are afraid to press this because the loss of access is such a likely outcome. IIRC there are some similar issues at Hood.

I was driving up to go touring at Steven's a few years ago, a week or two after they closed the lifts, and just after the Tunnel creek hairpin I saw an "Oversized Load" sign on a car. Naturally I stomped on the gas to get around whatever doublewide was getting in my way, and as I rounded the next corner I passed a TANK! ON the highway!

I skied anyway, it was a nice sunny day and I just assumed the tank was being put away for the year... I am super conservative about snow stability but I guess a bit casual about being blown to bits by WSDOT?

Scary! And maybe more so because about 90% of my current daydreaming is about this years North Cascades Highway opening...

I also wonder if we are afraid to press this because the loss of access is such a likely outcome.

Exactly. I didn't press the issue in 1997 and I wouldn't now either. I wrote my rec.skiing.backcountry post to place the responsibility for caution on the skier.

It does make me wonder though... If the recent Stevens Pass control work was done to protect power lines (and not skiers), were the people in the helicopter ski patrollers (who are more likely to think like backcountry skiers) or were they somebody else? Interesting question...

I think I overheard some jealousy from the patrollers on the ground that so-and-so was in the bird, but I doubt that the possibility of someone touring in from anywhere but "their" parking lots was even considered! Everyone I was around was focused on the bird and the bombs.