June 3-5, 2011, Sawtooth Range

Myself, Scott and Jim made the trek over to Twisp River Road to Ski Star, Courtney, and Oval Peaks. Day one had us hiking in just before the Buttermilk TH at 11 (due to a mud slide). We quickly came to the creek crossing which Scott, rather brazenly, decided that the two ~5" logs constituting the "bridge" would be a great choice. Within five feet of the shore each log was bouncing vigorously which had Jim and I taking bets as to how he was going to get wet (I was betting log failure) but alas, he demonstrated excellent balance and focus. Jim and I took a more robust log bridge conveniently located 30 feet away. After a couple hours of hiking we finally made snow where we post holed for a while. We made the call to go to skins and then, perhaps as expected, removed the skis due to a stream crossing and another half mile of dry trail. We eventually started skinning again which had us just shy of fish pass 8? miles and 3000' later. We awoke to perfect blue bird skies. We first made for Fish Pass and then around to the southern side of Star to otherwise take the climbers route. I plodded along after Scott and Jim and we made the summit at about 11 (8600'). The snow in the shade was near unbreakable crust (ski crampons very helpful) but the sun exposed snow was just soft enough to get good purchase. The views were utterly perfect as was the skiing. We were delighted to have timed the skiing off this very aesthetic line so well. We then made our way back to Fish Pass and the headed up the ridge to Courtney. Had to leave the skis 30ft shy of the summit and the ski down to camp was the expected spring slop but was still quite fun. Day three was tried to traverse from camp to below Oval. What a beating! We eventually each took our own path. Personally I feel in between two downed trees hip checking one though I dont think Scott and Jim fared much better. We dropped the overnight gear and headed to the lake below Oval where I stopped due to the earlier tree hip checking. Scott and Jim made good time getting to the summit and reported a mixed bag of good corn and glop down low. We gathered our things and engaged in further tree combat skiing until we found the trail again. Several places on the trail had melted out requiring very ginger stepping over bare trail. We eventually gathered enough pollen to get us through the rolling flats. We eventually made it back to the car at 4ish with dinner in Winthrop enjoying great beer and food right next to the river. Was an absolutely terrific trip in a part of the cascades I dont get to see much and would recommend doing this as a three day trip preferably with a lower snow line.