January 27, 2002, Hogsback Mountain, White Pass
1/27/02
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3067
0
Southern Utah, AKA Hogsback mtn. Sunday 1/27/02 . Due to challenging road conditions 6 of us met at the Chair lift at 10am. We took a nice ride up to Pigtail peak and headed out after being warned about moving our backpacks to our laps. Evidently there had been a incident with injury from an early chair lift departure.
This being a Tacoma Mountaineer's trip and me being the leader I felt it necessary to set the proper decourum. I accomplised this in my usual fashion by missing a jump into the soft snow at the bottom of Pigtail. While I was collecting myself the others skinned up for the ski back to Hogsback. We set the trail with the help of 2 skiers from Yakima. At least 2' of low density made trail breaking a chore. Weather was showers /sun breaks back and forth. Decided to go for the top and were glad we did because for a change it was not wind scoured. 8 to 12" of powder on top provided excellent skiing on the North thru NW sides for 3 runs. We stayed out the east facing bowls due to avalanche concerns. What we did ski was very stable but then again not that steep.
The run back was very slow due to the low angle. It would have been better to skied our uptrack back thru the woods. Due to later start and long day We ended with a full moon ski down thru the ski area to the parking lot. (Horrible roads took a bite out of a beautiful day in the backcountry.)
Robie
This being a Tacoma Mountaineer's trip and me being the leader I felt it necessary to set the proper decourum. I accomplised this in my usual fashion by missing a jump into the soft snow at the bottom of Pigtail. While I was collecting myself the others skinned up for the ski back to Hogsback. We set the trail with the help of 2 skiers from Yakima. At least 2' of low density made trail breaking a chore. Weather was showers /sun breaks back and forth. Decided to go for the top and were glad we did because for a change it was not wind scoured. 8 to 12" of powder on top provided excellent skiing on the North thru NW sides for 3 runs. We stayed out the east facing bowls due to avalanche concerns. What we did ski was very stable but then again not that steep.
The run back was very slow due to the low angle. It would have been better to skied our uptrack back thru the woods. Due to later start and long day We ended with a full moon ski down thru the ski area to the parking lot. (Horrible roads took a bite out of a beautiful day in the backcountry.)
Robie
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