June 5, 2011, Stuart, Ulrichs
6/5/11
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
1296
1
I appear to be in a bit of a rut.... having never skied in the Teanaway area until this spring, I've now had three back to back weekends up there. After a fun tour with Marcus and company around High Esmerelda on Saturday, Murray and I set out from the car at 4:30 on Sunday morning heading to Stuart.
We hiked/bushwacked till we reached continuous snow around 5000ft on the way to Longs Pass. The road is still blocked by avy debris about 3/4 of a mile from the trailhead but is otherwise dry. Still ample snow to ski continuously to Ingalls Creek, but we had probably 500vf of hiking before we hit continuous snow once out of the forest on the way up the Cascadian.
Sunday's cloud cover was a bit of a blessing as it kept the upper mountain from getting too mushy. There were a couple inches of new snow up high that had roasted in Saturday's heat.
After looking at Ulrichs last weekend, it was very satisfying to traverse over to it this weekend and drop in. The snow was a good mix of corn and mashed potatoes ...we figured the parties that skied it Saturday probably did a pretty good job ski cutting all the mush before we got there.
There are a couple spots where the couloir is getting down to maybe 20-25ft wide, but otherwise its still fat and i bet it stays in shape at least another weekend. There is one critical turn skiers right about halfway down (see the orange dots on the photo below)...of the three snow fingers that were there a couple weeks ago, I think this is the only one still skiable. The open slopes below Ulrichs still have continuous snow to the creek.
Once back at Longs Pass rather than skiing down immediately, we cut a hard skiers left traverse heading into the next basin south of Longs Pass (see map below)...there was still a substantial finger of snow that drops well below the snowline of the adjacent forest getting you to within 200vf of the trailhead and avoiding any schwacking on the way out.
pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/petealderson/UlrichsCouloirMtStuart?feat=directlink
We hiked/bushwacked till we reached continuous snow around 5000ft on the way to Longs Pass. The road is still blocked by avy debris about 3/4 of a mile from the trailhead but is otherwise dry. Still ample snow to ski continuously to Ingalls Creek, but we had probably 500vf of hiking before we hit continuous snow once out of the forest on the way up the Cascadian.
Sunday's cloud cover was a bit of a blessing as it kept the upper mountain from getting too mushy. There were a couple inches of new snow up high that had roasted in Saturday's heat.
After looking at Ulrichs last weekend, it was very satisfying to traverse over to it this weekend and drop in. The snow was a good mix of corn and mashed potatoes ...we figured the parties that skied it Saturday probably did a pretty good job ski cutting all the mush before we got there.
There are a couple spots where the couloir is getting down to maybe 20-25ft wide, but otherwise its still fat and i bet it stays in shape at least another weekend. There is one critical turn skiers right about halfway down (see the orange dots on the photo below)...of the three snow fingers that were there a couple weeks ago, I think this is the only one still skiable. The open slopes below Ulrichs still have continuous snow to the creek.
Once back at Longs Pass rather than skiing down immediately, we cut a hard skiers left traverse heading into the next basin south of Longs Pass (see map below)...there was still a substantial finger of snow that drops well below the snowline of the adjacent forest getting you to within 200vf of the trailhead and avoiding any schwacking on the way out.
pics here: https://picasaweb.google.com/petealderson/UlrichsCouloirMtStuart?feat=directlink
Sweet! Glad we could help you loosen up the legs on Saturday. Also glad Murr didn't puke.
Reply to this TR
Please login first: