Dec 30 to Jan 1, CPC Yurt, Windy Mountain

Does two years in a row make a habit?  If so, we're in the habit of heading to the last year, we had good snow come in just in time for our arrival.

We (me, AP, Pete, Becky, Andy, Mica, Chad, Mary, two puppies) met Jay in Scenic at 7 a.m. on Friday morning, then followed him up the road to one of the summer trailheads where the cat was waiting.  Ryan, Saul, Mary and Jenny Joe were there to help pack up and we were loaded and on the way up the logging road to the yurt by 8.  One of the things I appreciate most about Ryan and Jay's operation is the efficiency -- we were loaded, shuttled up, unpacked and done with our mandatory beacon search drill by 10:30, which left us the majority of the day to start digging into La Nina's freshly delivered New Year gifts.

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The birthday boy opening his present - Photo by PeteA

This was my first tour in a real winter snowpack since the slide last year, so I spent a lot of time the first couple of days dueling with my inner demons.  With such abundant new snow (16" Thursday night, delivered with high winds) on top of the crusts from December's long dry spell, we expected to find some interesting layers.  Lots of soft slabs on many aspects, with easy compression test results but little to no propagation, most of it in the new storm snow.  The bond to the older rain crust seemed reasonable.


Wrestling the demons - Photo by PeteA

We eased into our skiing, especially since we had a large group.  Moderate treed terrain skied fantastically on Friday and even better on Saturday, after another 8" of new overnight with a bit less wind.  North slopes had some of the softest, deepest powder I've skied in years and we spent all day Saturday farming the wind-protected slopes around the yurt, capping it off with a sunset run in the almost-alpenglow.


Sunset on Glacier Peak - Photo by PeteA

The wind came in hard again on Saturday night and we put in a few laps on Sunday morning, trying to find the most protected terrain amid the drum-hard wind slabs and deep soft slabs, before catching a ride back to the cars in the cat.  Many, many thanks to random-4x4 man (Morgan) who helped us extricate one of the vans from the side of the road after the river tried to claim it.

As usual, a great trip with lots of laughter.  For me, 2011 was a pretty crappy year in a lot of ways, so it was nice to bid it farewell with great company, great food (chicken marbella, chili, caprese salad, turkey soup, red velvet cake, liquor) and excellent snow.  Thanks to Andy for organizing it, and a happy birthday as well!


Hopi hitches a ride on the last run - Photo by PeteA