May 3-4, 2008, Tatoosh Goodness

St. Helens trip turned into a Tatoosh trip. 6 of us met at Narada for the skin in to Reflection Lakes.

Not having done the tour before we opted for the lower approach which parallels the road above. Unfortunately they had begun plowing so the road was a no-go and debris would occassionally rain down through the trees. After a couple sketchy crossings between plow passes we made it into some creek drainage below Reflection which led gradually up to the lake.

Once camp was set, we skinned around and up, heading roughly towards Castle in pretty bad visibility. The snow had lots of evidence of snowballs rolling but things were pretty solid. The snow skiied much better than we thought it would and good times were had and there was much hooting and hollering. Multiple mini-mini-slides were produced on steeper aspects which was a little unnerving but things were so solid underneath that surface slough didn't seem to matter.

Day two dawned clear and hot. Visibility was stellar. Saw the requisite conga-line headed up towards Muir. Light snow overnight didn't make up for the warming though as the snow had turned to mashed potatoes. The really gloppy Old Country Buffet styles potatoes not like the ones your mom used to make. Skinny skis was even more miserable though some good turns were had up high early, so good we doubled up on these and made do with the mashers below.

Heading out we decided to follow the "regular" route over the saddle northish of Reflection Lake. Giant reflective wands were quite helpful in keeping on the trail and this is definitely the prefered approach and deproach method. That or bikes on the road and hope the plows aren't running.

Pictures to follow as soon as I get some sent to me.