January 3, 2009, North of Norse

Nice pictures! I've encountered similar conditions in the past two days as well.

Sonya and I saw your skin track on Saturday from Pick Handle Ridge and right away knew where we were headed on Sunday.  We used the first half of your track to approach Goat Basin - thanks for the trail break.  I had only been up that way using the summer trail as an approach and we found the route you guys used definitely more direct with less bushwacking but quite a bit steeper and in some places more exposed.  We left your track after the first clearing where the trees got steep and the skin track got a little chaotic ; ) and broke trail up to the ridge on the S end Goat Basin.

We also found the stability to be pretty good, although the N - NE slopes in Goat Basin were getting increasingly wind loaded as the day progressed and the W facing slopes were wind affected for the return ski.  The saddle where the summer trail enters the Basin and the all of the main N facing couloirs had shallow soft slab natural releases throughout the day.  Three laps in Goat on relatively conservative lines had me calling mercy and we ended the day with the long run back to the truck.

Nice pics and again thanks for the trailbreak - that is a pretty long approach first time up.  I couldn't help but to follow your lead and hit as many stump booters as I could on the last pitch out...

Orion

Boot, nice.  Great pics.  Looks like N.P.W.A. would have been an excellent choice.  We were considering headin over towards Lake Basin, but opted for extra lines instead of using the time to traverse.

Orion, how did Goat Lake basin look?  Our thoughts were that it needed some more time to fill in a bit, but those north facing lines will be ready soon.  Thoughts?

author=Stugie link=topic=11773.msg48970#msg48970 date=1231178783]
Orion, how did Goat Lake basin look?  Our thoughts were that it needed some more time to fill in a bit, but those north facing lines will be ready soon.  Thoughts?

Most of the chutes were filled in and ready to go!  Let me know when you head up there so I can poach your uptrack  ;D.  I think I'm going to wait for a little more stability before I go up there again; it is painful to skin all the way up there and not ski the bigger lines in the basin...

Nice collection of pics in your cement basin TR.

Yes our skin tracks were very chaotic and the route-finding was somewhat frustrating. But a good day in the hills nonetheless. We did come accross a group of elk traversing the steep wooded slopes about 5300'. It was surprising to see big hairy things cruzing through the trees.

Orion,  Is this rock where you headed right, away from our tracks or was it before that?  Chaotic is a good word, though we were calling it something else >:(.

author=Boot link=topic=11773.msg49022#msg49022 date=1231213405]
Orion,  Is this rock where you headed right, away from our tracks or was it before that?  Chaotic is a good word, though we were calling it something else >:(.

We left your ski track before the rock in the steep trees but continued along the same general path up to the rock.  It looked like maybe our skis were biting into the crust under the fluff a little better than the splits on the steep stuff.  We followed the traverse under the pictured rock but when the track went down and North into the drainage we veered up and East to the ridge.  I think next time I head up there I will use the same clearing to start and immediately head hard left (North) at the top of the clearing into the drainage and follow the drainage to the saddle.

We saw the elk trail and it looks like you guys got pretty up close and personal with them - that must have been cool.