TR Replies
Thanks for the report. Better than expected. I hope it's getting colder by now. Skiing Hyak tomorrow and probably back to Blewett by midweek, conditions permitting.
Thanks for keeping the skin track open! Looks like a bad warm up coming😕
Way to get after it. Things changed quick! Worst day of skiing is still better than the best day of work!
Thanks for the kind words Micah and kneel turner. Same to you guys.
TAY lives large as long as peeps like the Traslins are contributing.
Thanks.
Thanks.
Thanks for sharing. Some Danzig.
The Blewett pass sno park map is a good starting point
https://parks.state.wa.us/459/Blewett-I-90
Also https://wenatcheeoutdoors.org/guidebook/
Has a bunch of info
https://parks.state.wa.us/459/Blewett-I-90
Also https://wenatcheeoutdoors.org/guidebook/
Has a bunch of info
You won't regret it!
Hurricane Ridge, that is. You might regret working at some point....
Hurricane Ridge, that is. You might regret working at some point....
Jim--We didn't notice any wind effect in the elevations we traveled, although I heard from someone later that Pineapple pass had got hit with the wind.
Pavel--Our friend John (Lonnie Butthill on the forum) and a postdoc Sydney in his group are doing a project to study snow flies of the genus Chionea. They are adapted to cold and are mostly only found on snow. The idea is to study how their neurophysiology (chemistry etc.) is adapted to cold. It appears their neurons can fu...
Pavel--Our friend John (Lonnie Butthill on the forum) and a postdoc Sydney in his group are doing a project to study snow flies of the genus Chionea. They are adapted to cold and are mostly only found on snow. The idea is to study how their neurophysiology (chemistry etc.) is adapted to cold. It appears their neurons can fu...
Nice. We were there on Sunday (on the Pineapple Pass side) and had nice skiing too. What's up with the snow insects - are you collecting them? I have seen them on the snow and always wondered whether these are stragglers destined to die or insects adapted to snow? What do they eat?
Nice shots. From the way the rain featuring shows up in that shot of skiing to toward the lake, it looks like that 4" must have fallen with little or no wind.
I am hoping to explore Blewett Pass for my first time. Just curious how most people approach Diamond Head and Tronson Head from the free winter parking area? It looks like there are some relatively low angle approaches on the NW aspects of Tronson Head, but would love to know if there is a more "standard" skin track. Cheers!
We skied over the top of Tronsen Head 5981ft doing a variation of the old "Tronsen Head Loop",, except we climbed directly up the N aspect of Windy Knob instead of following the Lillaby XC15 trail and Windy Gully. The best snow conditions were encountered above 5000ft.
Group Photo Album
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipON84wXPzNo-zYhQuNGHzBTw0ZLkybhjmCbzPxXF8PsxfxXpK12DSd5apv5X7Rr0A/photo/AF1QipPq7o8xRz1C47zxRJZQyN9fOMZ3_4yZXCPBrhwe?key=TmZQU0lL...
Group Photo Album
https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipON84wXPzNo-zYhQuNGHzBTw0ZLkybhjmCbzPxXF8PsxfxXpK12DSd5apv5X7Rr0A/photo/AF1QipPq7o8xRz1C47zxRJZQyN9fOMZ3_4yZXCPBrhwe?key=TmZQU0lL...
Ha! Winter! Beats working. Gotta get over there sometime soon
I thought I saw you over there😉 I think you had more new snow. We had preserved stuff up top, but seemed like just a trace of new. Wet snow on top of crust from 4400' on down. What was your high point? Ours was 5,050'.
I was out with a group in the Tronsen Basin area as well.
Much better than forecast conditions on Tronsen Basin today. All the snow fell overnight giving us partly sunny skies, winds were nowhere near the 55mph gusts predicted by NOAA and best of all it was cool enough to refreeze the weak wet crust layer observed by NWAC on Saturday. Good team of skiers made it even more enjoyable.
Much better than forecast conditions on Tronsen Basin today. All the snow fell overnight giving us partly sunny skies, winds were nowhere near the 55mph gusts predicted by NOAA and best of all it was cool enough to refreeze the weak wet crust layer observed by NWAC on Saturday. Good team of skiers made it even more enjoyable.
Mt. Shasta. 10,000' vert summit to town. Switch to mountain bike at parking lot.
Thanks for sharing. It would be great to ski and mountain bike in California again.
Yes - that is a great resource. Some guys went up all sorts of things years ago, and there are maps and all sorts of excellent information. I didn't stumble on it until I'd been skiing up there for years and it really confirmed some things for me. Also, some of that stuff needs more snow than we get in an average year from what I've seen.
If anyone wants to go try one of those routes out maybe on the weekend or next week, I think with the new snow coming it might work....
If anyone wants to go try one of those routes out maybe on the weekend or next week, I think with the new snow coming it might work....
author=kamtron link=topic=42502.msg166512#msg166512 date=1579626252]
Blewett is still such a mystery to me.
Geez, amen to that! I'll check out the suggested Wenatchee Outdoors site. "Hope springs eternal...."
Blewett is still such a mystery to me.
Check out the backcountry skiing guidebook on the Wenatchee Outdoors website. Lots to chew on there.
You got the goods right on time! Thanks for all the avy obs.
You have to go when a local tells you, and preferably with them...
Today a took a Splitter up, and he's hooked! Micro climates all over the place, aspect and elevation dependent...Light dry snow turns to crap from wind and sun. Good snow in sheltered areas can last a while. Blown in is your friend. I rarely ski at the pass itself. I don't have anything figured out yet except really easy stuff at the pass. I'll take you if you can show up when it's hot...
Today a took a Splitter up, and he's hooked! Micro climates all over the place, aspect and elevation dependent...Light dry snow turns to crap from wind and sun. Good snow in sheltered areas can last a while. Blown in is your friend. I rarely ski at the pass itself. I don't have anything figured out yet except really easy stuff at the pass. I'll take you if you can show up when it's hot...
I went up Kings Ridge and on the 18th and 19th it was still very good. It's all about the aspect when it starts to warm. If it doesn't see the sun or feel the wind, it holds out much better. The 20th it did turn heavy, so I'm hoping for a few more inches of light to cover it up. North and east facing is always best in that Valley. Maybe there was a slight inversion, or perhaps it just stayed colder further down the valley. It is a wild micro climate around there. Huge changes base...
It didn't stay cold. At least now down low. Tronsen Meadow area is mashed potato with a lot of water content. We only made it to 5130', on the lower ENE facing slopes of Diamond Head.
Thanks for the generous details. It sounds like you've been hammering away at Hayrick Butte for some time and have accumulated some valuable local knowledge. I hope to read about your future Hayrick adventures.
Hey @johnspeth, I can send you a gpx file that I made of one of my ascents (I believe it was this trip) but is a pretty typical ski/skin for me. In this, I didn't summit, but I summitted yesterday.
Regarding 'worth the effort,' I do find it quite enjoyable. The fast laps include about 600' of descent, but can be climbed (by me at least) in ~20 minutes with a broken trail. I will typically take anywhere from 2 laps up to 10 laps before I feel like heading back. The...
Regarding 'worth the effort,' I do find it quite enjoyable. The fast laps include about 600' of descent, but can be climbed (by me at least) in ~20 minutes with a broken trail. I will typically take anywhere from 2 laps up to 10 laps before I feel like heading back. The...
Hi John -
I chose that particular slope to ski because of the wind direction and also having skied the north side to confirm suspicions. I've been skiing Loveland Pass since 1995 so I ski what I know will be safe when conditions require it.
That, and a big ol' pile of cross-your-fingers luck.
Don't try this at home, kids, or you will be killed. Colorado is very unforgiving.
I chose that particular slope to ski because of the wind direction and also having skied the north side to confirm suspicions. I've been skiing Loveland Pass since 1995 so I ski what I know will be safe when conditions require it.
That, and a big ol' pile of cross-your-fingers luck.
Don't try this at home, kids, or you will be killed. Colorado is very unforgiving.
Really? To me, in the context I'm using it, “on†means something like...â€It's on fire!†“It's fantastic†I thought that was understandable to most...What's it mean to you?
“You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.†-Inigo Montoya
With the wind that you described (and generally inability to see necessary detail in the dark), how do you evaluate avalanche risk before committing?
Thanks for the conditions update before the long weekend!
A quality TR with a great storyline and cool ending.
It was! I guess you've probably seen the NWAC report for Snoqualmie already, but there's also an interesting user-submitted obs showing slab depth:
https://www.nwac.us/observations/pk/4487/
We were also in the Kendall area and did not observe large slab failure like this, but we didn't ski anything that open near treeline later in the day.
https://www.nwac.us/observations/pk/4487/
We were also in the Kendall area and did not observe large slab failure like this, but we didn't ski anything that open near treeline later in the day.
Looks nice! Thanks for the report, I was wondering how it was holding up with the wind.
a few more pictures from the day.
Nice! I found slab forming above chair 3 inbounds in Mission, so I suppose that jives with what you found as well.
Looks like fun - in an arduous sort of way. Very interesting snowfall pattern, thanks for the report and I appreciate reports like this with avy condition details. Yikes on that slab!
Going to check out Kings Ridge and maybe Blewett again tomorrow to see how things are...Fingers crossed...
This report is special to me since Hayrick Butte has been a summer and winter project for me for the past 20 years. There's hardly any publicly available information so you have to had talked to somebody to do it right. I did it the hard way by making 8 visits with 3 successes getting to the top for hiking. I've probed the south face and found it nice for skiing but problematic due to the sun exposure which means an icy bottom with the potential for a large dump to slide on the ice.
Thanks for sharing Andy. Fun. Unreal conditions. Maybe one day we will get powder turns in July on the summit of Mt Baker....?
Thanks Micah. Glad there is a community for turns all year skiing.
Thanks Micah. Glad there is a community for turns all year skiing.
Nice work on 160! Loved your video.