TR Replies
Last year i was finally introduced to steep, hard, ski cramponing and learned that there are bad ways to do that as well...I like boot crampons!
Thanks for the nice pictures and report.
The dynamic duo strikes again!
Quite the contrast between smooth corn and powder lower down and the surfaces you encountered up the Success route. Eek.
Thanks for taking me along for the video ride
Living on the eastside of the mountains, and skiing around 97 all season, I could tell that the lower elevation snowpack would go real fast. Glad there was enough for a little while. The North Cascades has been great!
Corvids are the smartest of the birds. You won't make that mistake again!
I like these sacks for raven and bear deterrence https://ursack.com/ in a less bulky package
Great trip and write up - congrats!
This looks like a mad tour. I would be super grateful to have a gpx file, or anything that shows the route on a map. Would you be willing to share?
Hey! I just had a raven or ravens demolish what I thought was a well-stashed food supply in the teanaway. They dug a double bagged supply out of my sleeping bag. Thankfully didn’t destroy my bag. Took 12 bars, a whole avocado (including pit), 3 huge sandwiches, a package of homemade freeze dried bananas, toothpaste. Couldn’t believe it! Props to those smart birds.
Sorry for the late reply. No GPX, but if you follow the road for 4 miles, you'll see it on you left as soon as you start taking the long switchbacks up the mountain towards Silver Peak.
Thanks for the TR. We were there on the 4th. We drove to the intersection with 2160. Skied the SW side. Really cool peak. Had a lot of fun.
Looks like fun! Thanks for the beta also, do you have a higher res version of the stuart range photo (2nd photo)? It'd be cool to zoom in and check out the snow coverage.
Do you think it is possible to drive to the end of the road at the Emerelda trailhead yet?
Sort of late to this conversation, but if there's sufficient snow cover down low there's a hazard free and straightforward way to get into Van Trump Park. Remain on the left (western) side of Van Trump Creek to the point where the creek drainage makes an obvious rightward bend to the north. In that general area veer left (west) away from the creek and easily ascend to Rampart Ridge, then follow the approximate route of the summer trail to Van Trump, crossing the deep creek swale e...
Your photo of "skiing the south face of Wallaby" hits on all cylinders...just gorgeous. Thanks for sharing.
Everybody had a great day. I started late so that was probably me late! Today was just as good
Think we saw you (original poster) exiting Hairpin Valley in the late afternoon. What a day! All aspects were good aside from just a couple of firm spots and even those weren't bad.
@james-little there is always a way. In this case the way involves lots of walking followed by lots of skinning. Or lots of waiting if you don't like walking and skinning.
We were up in Bean Basin yesterday and had fun - still plenty of snow, but the trail is melting fast so we booted a ways. East faces were smoother. Earl was looking boney.
Looked at your turns from Maple pass on Monday. Impressed! Puckering!
I had a late start. I headed down at 3:00. Since it will be a bit warmer I'd suggest 1:30 - 2:00 for heading down.
Nice. What time did you head back down? Thinking of the same route tomorrow. With temps, looks like may bit a bit more slush down low.
Nice! definitely stared at this many times and wondered...stoked to see it goes in the right conditions. Way to go get it. I also wondered about that couloir climbers right of the notch; how wide is that thing?
Nice to see reports coming in again about skiing lines that most just daydream about.
Woah, that's a lot of tracks. But it looks like a fine time. Thanks for the report!
Hello, nice trip report, looks like a huge day/effort. Curious about the snow level on the road? Anyway to get up to the Lake Ingalls trailhead?
do you have gpx for this chute ? Not sure if I have the exact line and I'm trying to ski it this weekend.
Wow! What an adventure! It has been good weather. Gotta go out now and take a look south of there...Thanks for the inspiration!
I saw a sign 2 days ago that said no sledding. They can only ban for so long...It’s National Forest Land and once they are torn down, we should be able to use it. I guess unless they say they are getting ready for biking...
I thought that Vail was banning all uphill traffic, even when the resort is closed?
I would ask how how far back the snow is on the road, but it looks like you skinned up to the top of Hyak, and dropped down the backside? I usually try to wait for this one until I can park to the switchback on FS 9070 at least, but not sure when that will be. Nice work!
“My Kingdom for an Ax - or even a Whippet”😄
Thanks! Good to hear. I too have been beaten by that creek. It will kill somebody too eager some day.
Hey more of the same on Tuesday 5/5/2021 plus a dusting! Main slope was close to perfect.
Coverage is fat and I didn't detect any sign of the main crevasse unzipping as yet,
Paradise valley floor was sloppy boot deep at 1pm but the glide out went quick.
We skipped our usual Golden Gate exit in favor of the of the Mazama ridge exit
and were happy with the quality of snow there due to aspect.
Surprisingly the valley rd up from 4th crossing sti...
@fuzz,
Glad to hear your buddy is ok. I'm a helmet-on the whole descent kind of guy, for exactly that reason. Sounds like better coverage than when I skied it in 2018, good to hear. 500 feet of careful ski exit isn't so bad.
It will be a lot busier once hwy 20 is open...
Great to see a Whitehorse TR. The one time in 4 or 5 attempts that I was successful in skiing that beast was May 1, 2008. The key was having the aptly named Snow Gulch filled with avy debris. This allowed us to ascend a side gulley (climber's right) from the main basin to about 3200' where we could traverse over to the "whitehorse glacier". I was thinking that with the big snowpack this winter and the mega avy cycles we had earlier this year it might be worth another try, but I guess not.&nbs...
@eatskisleep, there was decent snow for skinning right off the road...had to skin across a few bits of dirt at the very bottom but otherwise put the skis on at the edge of the road and didn't take them off til the high point. It was cool overnight and looks to stay that way this week and so I guess the snow will probably hang in there for a bit.
However, conditions were marginal in the bottom 500 vertical feet and this was more of a prob on the way down, when we had to pick our way t...
Nice work! how long until you found consistent snow for skinning?
Yeah! Got around to watching the vid, really nice. The sense of humor towards adverse conditions and enjoying it was palpable, gotta have that!
btw Katwalk exposure can be avoided with a short scramble (claw up) just West of it--Red side
"After this outing the ski crampons are definitely going in the bag for every trip. They made the last section we ascended fun instead of barely doable and terrifying."
I, too, came to this conclusion years back. They are the most absolutely stupid piece of gear to leave behind for weight in retrospect. Literally 100 feet of using them makes up for t...