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Coffee Crisp! I suspected as much.
Wowza. That's the long way around. I would write an angry letter to Burgdorfer. More direct routes exist on the NE and NW flanks.
I like the shadow in the backflip image - the first one is my fav though. Thanks for sharing
I'm not sure hillshaveeyes???? I think you were on to something with Diddle Hut.
Dog Hollow?
Dump Haven?
Dill Hole?
Doddering Hank?
Dingle Haus?
Dang Hellions?
Dandy Heights?
Dozen Horses?
Diddle Hut?
Oh right, Diamond Head. Geez.
author=lrudholm link=topic=24342.msg102870#msg102870 date=1333310184]
What do you think about dawn patrols on the west side of Humpback.. with colder storms of course?
I don't think that would work if you can't drive any part of the road past the T intersection.  The road is really long before you get to anything that would be good skiing.  The gps showed 10.7 miles round trip (linked our tracks below).  The Tinkham R...
Yes, enjoyable conditions were had there today especially when compared to what we had yesterday at Snoqualmie.  Sadly it was our first visit to Blewett Pass so we didn't know where all the good skiing was.  But we happened to meet "WMC" in the sno-park afterwards and he gave us some great guidance for future trips!
OK here is the real reason we Skagit Valley elitist and others in the "know" do not want all you Seattle poachers up on "our" mountain(besides all those ridiculous green Gore-tex pants and never ending stream of Subaru wagons taking up space in the parking lots). Its a known local fact that the metal box on top of Ruby is not a radio repeater, but a secret stash of CANDY!!!, that right, NewHalem elves come up twice a year and stock it with not only butterscotch lozenges and l...
I think tr's on TAY give the false impression that there is a limited number of areas in which to tour in solitude. The Cascades are vast on both sides of the crest, that with just a little imagination and higher tolerance for suffering, one can always find undisturbed turns, and then not talk about it afterwards.
That looks worth waiting for.
What about this one that Amar posted back in January:
http://www.turns-all-year.com/skiing_snowboarding/trip_reports/index.php?topic=23286.0
- Very close to Seattle
- Known only to locals
- Sees very few (ski) tracks
And now that secret stash is on the internet, too.  ;)

I'll confess I'm one of those too lazy for the 6hr roundtrip drive and 5200 foot vertical in a day.  So I'll only know Ruby mountain from Amar's report.  An...
author=Big Steve link=topic=24347.msg102876#msg102876 date=1333327307]
Fun today, untracked, stable


Well, How 'bout that!  With all the fragmented emails and cryptic text last night, I really didn't know who was doing what?  From over on WK, Jake and I could hear the occassional shout from you guys!  We stayed there for four runs or perhaps we would have found you.  Sorry to miss you again, Steve!
Great dry r...
Ruby isn't exactly a secret stash.  It's probably the most skied peak in winter along SR20 west of the crest. 

Amar, (and everyone) thanks for posting about your fun and beautiful skiing adventures.  The last decade's boom in backcountry skiing will certainly bring more of these kind of discussions; and TAY is in direct confrontation to the "locals-only" mentality.

It's a tough balance between public exposure of beautiful places...
Phew, what great fun, looks like you just nailed the sweet spot, and with a great crew, thanks for the pictures, and video.
author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=24307.msg102833#msg102833 date=1333222357]

While you did not ask me directly to remove this TR (the other person who PMed me did ask directly), your PM appeared to be intended to pressure me (or shame me, or guilt-trip me) in that direction. Especially since you quoted your PM to the author of the March 22 Ruby Mountain TR, where you did pressure him towards TR removal (stating "my choice when it comes to Ruby Moun...
What do you think about dawn patrols on the west side of Humpback.. with colder storms of course?
That slide is a regular feature. The rock faces on that side of Humpback shed often.
As the Cascade gems are slowly documented, it makes me sad, though it is inevitable. It's inevitable that some places I like to ski will someday see exposure to the internet. When it happens, I'll mourn the loss of places that I've found or that were shown me by friends; places I could nearby find solitude and peace in mountain snow. Then I'll find more, but they'll be harder to reach.

For those losing favorite haunts to trip-report-following masses, it's...
Condescending input, wouldn't you say...cherish human interaction/comrade-re... JACK!
yeah, it wasn't bad in the open.  We were up there taking a quick lap of the top few hundred feet when a bunch of people (your group?) came by.  The skiing was better than I was expecting from the climb, not too deep & sloppy on the skinny boards I was borrowing for the day...

We all agreed it was nice to get out and get some skiing in, and at least it didn't rain on us!  At one point someone called it sunny, but it was really only a kind of "sun"...
It was a much better day than I expected and the sunset runs were a real treat.
author=DCM link=topic=24337.msg102853#msg102853 date=1333245218]
Crazy how deep we were sinking in given how heavy the snow was up there.  The stoke was not running too high today.


Yeah, that describes it exactly.  It was like it was an upside down snowpack except that it really wasn't!
Thanks for the info.
John
I heard that it was Bryce Phillips too. A group was taking photos and perhaps filming on the ridge above pee pass on Thursday, and there was a rumor that they were setting up for a cool filming on Fri.

Some more info about Crispin and the skin track. We met at source lake and while he changed in to up gear, my partner and I started up an already laid track. Shortly I hear him kindly excuse himself as he passed my partner and then shortly passed me.

More impressive though w...
Nope, not much different at Snoqualmie.  Little to no new snow overnight at pass level, but snowing hard most of the day.  Crust in the trees down low, and then creamed butter up higher.  Crazy how deep we were sinking in given how heavy the snow was up there.  The stoke was not running too high today.
I for one have enjoyed every single one of Amar's reports--often enviously,  I might add, but not because he stole my stash of powder. His reports are useful and beautiful, a rare combination. As for Ruby: censorship never works. There have been dozens of Ruby reports at TAY and nwhikers, including winter reports. Everybody who cares about bc skiing knows there is a lot of prime bc terrain there; it's relatively unfrequented only because many people, myself included, are too busy...
In southern CO town of Salida this weekend trying to ski one of the Sawatch peaks.  Very , very low snow year here, so nice to see Chair Peak holding so much snow.  Nice pic's....  Brings back good memories.
author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=24307.msg102833#msg102833 date=1333222357]
...((shaking my head))



Hee, hee.   Yeah, a bit ironic, but still funny - attempting to defuse odd situations comes in many colors..

If offering my own paint, it might be I'd say that this is the weirdest thread (not saddest thread, because that belongs, in part, to me and some others from last week  ;) ) that I've seen around here...
Honestly, I have been eying this same ski location for years by asking the question, what would it be like to ski here on the North side of Ruby?  Posting the trip is great im my mind.  I would have posted my trip and not removed it if I ever got people from Bremerton interested in the North Cascades.  I almost just posted a ski trip I did up Sourdough Mountain that I did in February from the same parking lot if it were not silly little computer problems with learning out how to post photos on t...
Gee, maybe Marcus should just remove the TAY "Trip Reports" option.

Amar, I really enjoyed this trip report, just as I do all your well-written, informative other reports.  It's fun reading about places I may not have thought of skiing, even though I may have visited them in the summer.  Peoples' love for these places shines through; maybe that's what I like thr most.

Much more preferable to the "skied-somewhere-on-planet-Earth"...
author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=24307.msg102833#msg102833 date=1333222357]
And I don't think that PMs on an online forum like TAY are somehow sacred or privileged private communications whose existence can not be revealed to the public.
In case this is a response to my comments, I want to be clear that my only point there was "even PMs on this topic have a tendency to lead to the public discussion that increases the exposure." If one...
It's far better to have an open public discussion than deal with PMs. After receiving a second PM on this issue (Lowell's), I decided to take it public to head off any others who might want to PM me asking to take the TR down. And I don't think that PMs on an online forum like TAY are somehow sacred or privileged private communications whose existence can not be revealed to the public.


author=Lowell_Skoog link=topic=24307.msg102807#m...
Yes, not the first time I've seen someone be compelled to make a public point based on those sorts of PMs.

Tomorrow should be nice for skiing too, eh? That's what I'm hoping anyway. And if I'm lucky, I'll find myself a spot to tour where we are setting our own track, figuring our own way, and getting that "sense of discovery" that Lowell, Ski Photomatt, and others have mentioned when this topic arises. I feel lucky to live in a place where that stil...
author=dberdinka link=topic=24280.msg102623#msg102623 date=1332857844]
The big one you see from the highway that drops all the way down to the valley floor?  We skied that a long time ago in mediocre snow.  It has an obnoxious double fall line the whole way unlike Clean Slate.  I called it "Barometer Falling" but I don't think anyone knew that but me....


I believe that zone was what Allen and Brian recently describ...
Lowell, i meant to thank you in my earlier post for coming forward and stating your case. Arguing on the internet (even politely) is tedious and exhausting so I though it was exemplary of you to come forward and make your case under your own name. Thank you for that.

When living in Vermont, I frequently came across what I would describe as the mountains-as-church crowd vs. what you described as the mountains-as-arena crowd. Given the relatively tiny amount of BC terrain in VT vs. thi...
author=Jim Oker link=topic=24307.msg102823#msg102823 date=1333212923]
I've seen one thing for sure over the years, very much so on nwhikers and to some extent here - if you want to draw attention to a place that has just been reported on, suggest that the report should not have been posted. It seems like a very good way to massively increase the page views and the length of time for which the report stays near the top.


Yeah....
I've seen one thing for sure over the years, very much so on nwhikers and to some extent here - if you want to draw attention to a place that has just been reported on, suggest that the report should not have been posted. It seems like a very good way to massively increase the page views and the length of time for which the report stays near the top. Unless of course the poster relents and agrees to remove the report, but clearly that's not always what happens.

I'm fine...
author=samthaman link=topic=24307.msg102810#msg102810 date=1333178945]
Lowell (ok, mr. skoog to you), I love alpenglow.org, both because of the historical context it provides, and for the motivation to get out the door and push myself. Many of the routes described on your site aren't particularly hard for a fit skier to do in a day, yet they're named, described, and in some cases "red-lined' onto photos. Is that really any different than wh...
author=skykilo link=topic=24307.msg102808#msg102808 date=1333177632]
We should all applaud Amar for skiing from somewhere other than Paradise!


;D

I know of this sweet Slot by Snoqualmie but don't tell anyone because it is a secret!

Sorry would write more but I am training for Alaska.
author=skykilo link=topic=24307.msg102808#msg102808 date=1333177632]
I'm constantly ``discovering'' for myself things that are actually well documented in one place or another.  So this argument strikes me as a red herring in the same way Amar's argument about a possible tram strikes you.

We should all applaud Amar for skiing from somewhere other than Paradise!


First off it is nice to see Amar actual...
Thanks for sharing with the community, Amar.  I always enjoy reading your TRs.


Lowell (ok, mr. skoog to you), I love alpenglow.org, both because of the historical context it provides, and for the motivation to get out the door and push myself. Many of the routes described on your site aren't particularly hard for a fit skier to do in a day, yet they're named, described, and in some cases "red-lined' onto photos. Is that really any different than what Amar has done? Does it make them any less of an adventure? I'd pose that in the very same way...
author=Lowell_Skoog link=topic=24307.msg102807#msg102807 date=1333177216]
For me, the issue is not about powder stashes. It is about what Reinhold Messner called "White Wilderness." It's the notion that we lose something when every place is mapped and photographed and documented to the point where you can't go anywhere and experience the joy of discovery anymore.  You never experience the delight of finding a place that you never knew exist...
I'm one of the people who contacted Amar about this trip report.

I did not ask Amar to remove his TR. But I explained why I was disappointed to see it and why I have chosen not to post reports about this destination. I explained my philosophy 18 years ago in a letter to the editor of Couloir. At the time, Craig Dostie was catching flak about publishing "secret spots" in his magazine.

I wrote:

Couloir, Feb/Mar...
I want to wholeheartedly lend my support to Amar on this one, this is one of the few subjects in skiing that will really make my blood boil, and it's heartening to see the reaction of most of the rest of TAY.

edited: because I thought better of posting at midnight.
Way to nail Lane.  Lover's Lane can rip big, you guys got it in good conditions.  Fly and Zipper a little more tricky.  Hitting it a few years ago we had the zipper peel out. 

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