TR Replies

Thanks Ryan for the insight, I like reading your thoughts.

Looks like Eric got some fancy skis to match his fancy...hot... curvy....

1/30/12 4:17am

Lisa

Wow, nice work Ryan and others! Very well written Ryan, thanks for sharing.

1/30/12 4:14am

Salal

Nice report. Is the south face of alaska filled in now? It was a bit thin in december. Been leaving a bike chained to a tree at the exit of GC so I dont have to walk the road.

1/30/12 3:39am

Salal

Friday was a good day to be out ..eh? Glad you got you crazy skiboard down that one scott..I know you have been looking at that line in the past. Looks like a blast!

1/30/12 3:34am

bs.

author=christoph benells link=topic=23449.msg99452#msg99452 date=1327881322">
hey ale how is the tour up suprise creek? i saw on a map once it was marked as a winter xc ski route?

i'm not sure it would be a very popular nordic trip... unless you like taking your skis off to cross streams on logs and having lots of meandering snowshoers stomp all over your trail.

nonetheless it was a great way to spend one of the be...

1/30/12 3:24am

mfaoro

A few pals and I did the North Face of Chair Peak route (from Volken's book) on Saturday.

I have taken a few years off to be lazy, ski inbounds, get married etc. Saturday was the first 'big' tour in maybe 4 years.

Wow - touring has grown in those four years. Instead of being the only people in the upper reaches of Chair there must have been 25 other people on the same or very similar routes. I even ran into Benj from FOAC at the lower notch. No complaints her...

1/30/12 2:28am

Pete A

holy huge tour! nice job Ryan and company...

and shenanigans involved in getting across to the east side of Gold Creek on the way out?

1/30/12 2:15am

jwplotz

What a great TR, all around compelling. Thanks for posting.

1/30/12 1:55am

Big Steve

No trailbreaking for us, James. We got out at dusk. Bigger day than we had planned. Next time we should sync up our plans :)

1/30/12 1:24am

Chuck C

January 28, Diamond Head

A little decomposed but we could tell they were pretty recent. I'd seen your note looking into conditions and wondered if they were yours. By the time we got done there was a good rut.

1/30/12 1:17am

Marcus

Great stuff Ryan, thanks for sharing it. You've got a hell of a posse.

1/30/12 12:01am

ron j

Jan 27 Baker Backcountry, Swift Creek Drainage

Nice report, Ryan.

1/29/12 11:10pm

stoked

author=ebeam link=topic=23430.msg99439#msg99439 date=1327873105]
Stoked, I did a Barometer traverse on the 22nd. Skiing the long fall line of trees to the Nooksack valley still needs additional snow for fun skiing. We skied the entire way, but about half of it was survial technique. Exiting into Anderson Creek valley would be fine, but then you have more road skiing.

Right. Thanks ebeam. And it's warming up a tad too much thi...

1/29/12 10:59pm

kevino

January 28, Diamond Head

were our skin/ski tracks from friday already buried?

1/29/12 3:46pm

Sol Wertkin

I'll be sure to write up that rock mtn tour soon.

Pete, the earlier the better. 540 seems to be my departure time from Ltown these days...Carpe Diem.

John, I figured that was you out there. Weekends work best, lets do it man, psyched!

1/29/12 2:10pm

jhamaker

1/28/2012, Mt Cashmere cliff out fail

Hey BS:
Glad we got to call you down to the Lakes. What a fun run.
We made it back to the ridge and were going to wait for you but it started to spit. We skied W down to the luge run w/o the water affecting the snow too much. It just slowed us down a bit wich was fine for a first time rune down an unscouted slope.

Did you have any trail breaking?

1/29/12 11:26am

Chuck C

January 28, Diamond Head

Here's the pics. Much better than Alpy was today.

1/29/12 11:26am

jwplotz

Frustrating day, but still beats the treadmill at Gold's gym. I think ice cragging would have been the better choice. One lessons learned: I'll never fight my way up Pioneer Creek again.

Chips, beer and Cougars at South. Not a bad period on the day.

1/29/12 11:03am

jwplotz

Nice TR Sol! Hopefully we can get out around Leavenworth for a few tours this year. Sounds like you had a better day than Scott and I had.

1/29/12 10:51am

Pete_H

Good you got an early start. Snow turned to glop real quick yesterday.

1/29/12 8:53am

kevino

we got an early start, 0400, and found nice pow on the southeastish side of mt snoqualmie. it was even snowing on us!

1/29/12 8:43am

christoph benells

January 28, 2012, Hurricane

hey ale how is the tour up suprise creek? i saw on a map once it was marked as a winter xc ski route?

1/29/12 7:55am

chmnyboy

Thanks for the report. I turned around at the toll booth and went biking, glad I made the right choice!

1/29/12 6:49am

dahu

Jan 27 Baker Backcountry, Swift Creek Drainage

A wonderful day out ;D ! Thank you for posting Niko. Cannot believe it has been 4 years since my last trip up Roosevelt with Lisa! Snow flies by.

More pictures at : https://picasaweb.google.com/104952785231857279993/MountRoosevelt02

1/29/12 5:47am

ebeam

author=stoked link=topic=23430.msg99411#msg99411 date=1327856846]
Was thinking of the Barometer Mountain traverse. Wondering if there's enough snow low down to make it a go?

Stoked, I did a Barometer traverse on the 22nd. Skiing the long fall line of trees to the Nooksack valley still needs additional snow for fun skiing. We skied the entire way, but about half of it was survial technique. Exiting into Anderson Creek valley w...

1/29/12 5:38am

lrudholm

1/28/2012, Mt Cashmere cliff out fail

Voile splitboard crampons maybe?

At least you got out! I was way too wiped for any skiing after the shocker surprise tour.

1/29/12 5:37am

alecapone

Sick!!

Nice work gang, and great read on your blog Sol.

Although I couldn't find that rock mt south couloir report....

1/29/12 4:51am

Marcus

No worries Sol, great first TR and nice job getting that face of Licht in good conditions.

1/29/12 4:43am

ryanl

Nice to see a ski TR Sol!

1/29/12 4:35am

Jake the Brit

Hey Ale: all the usual stuff: Burton boots & Sparks. The crazed prototyping season is on hold while the powder is here.
More binding-invention foolishness coming soon. I have retired as chief editor of the tomahawk times..............for now!

1/29/12 4:11am

lrudholm

Big thanks to Scott for breaking trail up the approach the day before. Scott's photos sum up the day pretty good, but here are a few more from a different perspective.

Surprise Shocker tour

Conditions were pretty damn perfect for a tour so I'm pretty jazzed we did a dark to dark day. So much so that I fell asleep that night with all my ski clothes on. P...

1/29/12 3:27am

alecapone

Yes, still using the 700's you gave me, thank you very much. And correct, some old burton race plates mounted on voile sliders for the down. More then a pound in the pack, so they need to go on a serious diet.

Next up is to get a TTS on there. ;)

I get questioned on it so much, I'll try to post a small tutorial of my two rigs, and the pros and cons.

1/29/12 2:09am

Marcus

That's a good looking rig -- I like the use of the Dyna toes for touring. You just carry the puck-plates in your pack? Are you still using those old TLT 700s that you modified?

1/29/12 1:55am

alecapone

January 27, 2012, Mt. Baker Backcountry

What did that crazy Brit have on his feet? ;)

1/29/12 1:48am

alecapone

Gulp....

Cougars like deep pow? My biggest fear in the BC is now going to keep me spooked to a much higher elevation thanks...

Although South in leavenworth was loaded with cougars yesterday. John and I where lucky to get out unscathed.

Nice looking trip guys!

and psst, Silas has nice eyes too, but that's Mack...

1/29/12 1:31am

stoked

January 27, 2012, Mt. Baker Backcountry

author=skier8484 link=topic=23435.msg99356#msg99356 date=1327780959]

Looks like Anderson Creek in the background. What was the ski out to the highway like at the bottom? Was there enough snow?

1/29/12 1:26am

alecapone

thanks Marcus..

The first board pictured is Kyle's prior that I have been riding broken all year so far. The 'puck' is the only thing that has been holding it together. recent pow days at the Flying Squirrel, aka just above MTR holler, took it's toll.

I bought two solid boards last Sunday from a shop in monroe for a 100$ a piece. By evening I cut them both in half.

I made one into more of an alpine touring board. I'm old and only go in o...

1/29/12 1:22am

Marcus

Jan 27 Baker Backcountry, Swift Creek Drainage

Nice TR Scott! What's the story with that board?

1/29/12 1:12am

stoked

Hey Don,

Down to what elevation did you ski? And what was the snow depth? Was thinking of the Barometer Mountain traverse. Wondering if there's enough snow low down to make it a go?

1/29/12 1:07am

altasnob

Lots of people out and about in today. Saw a number of climbers on the summit of Chair Peak

As others have noted, found anything you could (and could not) want, including pow

1/29/12 12:24am

Jim Oker

Jan 28, 2012, Der Skyline Haute Route

Glad we went elsewhere in the Pass area where there were no trains of people. We saw a few snowshoers who briefly converged on our route, but no body heat buildup. But that didn't help when it started to rain...

We looked at some east slopes but we could see snow plumes arcing over them and thought better of it, which seemed in the end like a fine choice since the west glades we hit were so sweet!

1/29/12 12:22am

alecapone

Skyline Haute route? Nevr heard that, but I Like it!

Cool variation John and gang.

1/28/12 11:11pm

flowing alpy

looking across from alpy there was a train of folks moving up the valley towards bryant with numerous skin tracks. chair peak had one classic track beautifully set to the col. amazing looking

1/28/12 10:58pm

Big Steve

East aspect slope down to Kendall Peak Lakes was the best skiing of the day for us.

1/28/12 3:14pm

JasonGriffith

Wasn't it an amazing day? I think we passed you three when you were skinning up near the gully on Roosevelt, the powder was too good to stop and chat!

1/28/12 2:27pm

Jake the Brit

Excellent.
http://pix.kg/p/544206658212%3A1811995736/scl

1/28/12 1:35pm

JPH