TR Replies

exciting! tell us more!More pictures!

1. how is the dosewalips washout in this weather? did you carry your skis and bike in the same trip? was the water high?

2. you carried skis ?thousand feet? up the tree roots - the "trail" is challenging when the ground is dry, was there a frozen waterfall?

3. how close did you get to mount constance?

4. did you get a picture of Pete Puma?

2/8/10 12:18pm

Gary_H

Nice guys, I was thinking about you while we were digging snow pits and doing beacon practice closer to Alpental.

Gary

2/8/10 12:12pm

Gary_H

Wow,
That's a big day, excellent effort and great photos.

2/8/10 12:03pm

haggis

Multi disciplinary trip reports, we'll make an adventure racer out of you yet! Great work BTW.

2/8/10 10:48am

joeb

Very nice. It's nice to see the neglected Olympics get some credit. That hike up the Constance trail must have been a real bitch with skis on your back.

A couple of questions regarding the route. How long did it take you to reach the lake? Where did you first encounter solid snow? What's the condition of the Dose road beyond the gate?

Thanks for the TR and any info yo can provide.

2/8/10 10:10am

altasnob

Sweetness! Any links to additional pics?

2/8/10 9:44am

altasnob

traveling south of the 49th parallel for turns. . .what gives? ;)

2/8/10 9:43am

lrudholm

Feb 6-7, 2010, Cashmere + whiteout = fail

Inspiring!

2/8/10 9:28am

bramski

Oh boy... I have a great image to sum up Pioneer Creek. We skinned up via 8-mile lake a couple of weeks ago, and found ourselves in deep deep powder with amazingly little visibility. I will never ski out Pioneer creek again. However, a friend nicely provided his photos from a lovely clear day high on Cashmere. That chute into the south bowl is really calling my name!

I'm very curious though what the doctor creek descent looks like. It would dump you...

2/8/10 9:16am

biker

February 7, 2010, Bullion Basin et al

we were the tele skiers who passed you on the steep pitch up just past the groomer turn off, snow was fun down but breaking trail was a lot of work

2/8/10 8:43am

ebeam

author=TobyT link=topic=15516.msg64888#msg64888 date=1265581987]
... heading up there tomorrow.

What is the report from today? I am thinking an early morning trip if conditions are still good. Thanks.

2/8/10 8:29am

ebeam

That route picture really helps. Thanks.

I guess you guys never do (report) mellow. It is fun just to follow all the places people ski these days.

2/8/10 8:26am

Teleskichica

Feb 7, Kootenay Pass, Whitewater BC, Boulder Hut

author=A&K link=topic=15523.msg64948#msg64948 date=1265669641]
Hey that is our friend and his dog's lunch sack. He would love to get it back if someone could drop it by the Alp patrol or just leave it there.

We got to the bottom of the coulior and realized it was still hanging on the tree. We were excited to see it made it onto TAY.

Thanks!

Keegan...? :)
That's pretty funny because we spe...

2/8/10 8:22am

Stugie

Nice looking stuff up there...thanks for the tr.

2/8/10 8:00am

Stugie

Sick, I love the Crystal Lakes Basin area.

2/8/10 7:58am

BillK

THANK YOU! GREAT RESOURCE!

2/8/10 6:58am

A&K

Hey that is our friend and his dog's lunch sack. He would love to get it back if someone could drop it by the Alp patrol or just leave it there.

We got to the bottom of the coulior and realized it was still hanging on the tree. We were excited to see it made it onto TAY.

Thanks!

2/8/10 6:54am

ovrthhills

Great morning to be out. Hope you were able to avoid the heinous breakable crust that plagued Paradise.

2/8/10 5:21am

ovrthhills

Wow! where did all that snow come from. Maybe it blew off Rainier and ended up at Crystal. We toured down to Crystal Lakes from Three Way a couple of weeks ago in new snow on crust. Thats a great area. Good choice.

2/8/10 5:10am

skykilo

Been itching to ski the most direct line to that couloir since Eric and I skied the couloir almost two years ago.

2/8/10 3:46am

schtev

February 7, 2010, Bullion Basin et al

Bill,

If you are interested in how to make interesting anchors and leave nothing or little behind, check out some of the stuff being done in canyoneering. While many of their tricks won't apply, they do have some neat retrievable anchors systems and knots that I have tried. As with anything, they work well - when done properly.

http://www.canyoneering.net/forums/showthread.php?t=1558&highlight=macrame\

http://www.canyonwiki.com/wiki/index.php/Advanced_...

2/8/10 2:53am

Randito

Janitha was the guy touring on conventional alpine gear. He undid his alpine boot buckles, except the toe buckle and made quick short strides. I was impressed with his rate of climb with that configuration. He did reapply moleskin to his heels during a break.

We you the guy with a pair of 90mm Jak BC's on their first tour -- if so how did they ski?

2/8/10 2:45am

biker

February 7, 2010, Bullion Basin et al

We were up there as well, and passed you fairly early on the skin track Skiied down union creek from the shoulder in nice snow, then skinned up to point 6674 and skied the bowl with very nice snow down to about 5800ft, back up to the high point and down the glade to the parking lot with lots of crust on that face. Hope your guy with the alpine binders was alright.

2/8/10 2:12am

Mofro

Dog food is in the bag.

Despite complete lack of vis in the bowl up top, Crooked skied way better than the Slot IMO on Sat. The ice bulge is still present in the main chute, but very easy to negoiate the exit of Crooked on skiers right.

2/8/10 1:35am

altasnob

Feb 6-7, 2010, Cashmere + whiteout = fail

Scottsman, PNWBrit, Skierlyles, Dave, Sam, and I were also enjoying the pea soup in the Crystal slackcountry that day. We found better snow and visibility in the Crystal Lakes area than the Morse Creek drainage. Trailbreaking was a pain but having a group of 6 helped. Still fun turns despite the vertigo effect.

Into the abyss

2/8/10 1:10am

altasnob

Nice work finally getting in to that area ... too bad about the weather tho. Next time! :)

2/8/10 1:05am

Teleskichica

Feb 6-7, 2010, Cashmere + whiteout = fail

author=skier8484 link=topic=15523.msg64916#msg64916 date=1265639433]
Also, anyone know what's in the bag hanging in the tree by the couloir entrance?

We wondered the same...

2/8/10 12:43am

Marcus

Nice! We were wondering where you guys ended up. North facing snow in the Alp valley and Chair Peak area is still excellent.

2/8/10 12:32am

Andrew Carey

Feb 6, 2010, Pebble Creek, MRNP

nice report

2/8/10 12:07am

skier8484

Agreed, the Slot did ski really well, especially considering the conditions on other aspects. I definitely look forward to a return trip where the skiing back to car isn't mashers the whole way.

Although that ten footer to mush you hucked on the way out was SICK!

Also, anyone know what's in the bag hanging in the tree by the couloir entrance?

2/7/10 10:30pm

Teletim

Nice job...I guess you can add "sistashredda" to your list of monikers. BTW, I broke the chain on my mtb on a climbing trip up there a few years back.

2/7/10 1:39pm

peteyboy

Feb 6 ONP Hurricane Hill slog via the Elwha

Absolute milk bottle up there today. Same tour was very different today - great in the few spots we could see, lots of slow, over-rotating skiing by braille. Friggin' forecast - missed by a day.

2/7/10 1:27pm

myikat

didn't realize we had golden eagles on the west side.

2/7/10 12:31pm

Robie

This is the way we found Castle saddle on saturday morning With Gary leading.

2/7/10 12:30pm

bakershredda

SICK!!! I wonder what today and this week holds in the way of weather up there... might try and get up there soon too....

2/7/10 12:00pm

iluka

We were out there as well and headed further down the road, skiing up onto the slopes above Bench Lake where we found lots of very skiable dense powder on all the north facing aspects. Ski penetration about 8-10 inches while skinning up. We topped out at around 5800 feet and didn't find any wind slab similar to those seen around Castle.

No evidence of instability in the pack where we were aside from one slap that released from just below Peak 6524 that looked as if it had been t...

2/7/10 11:33am

Robie

Thanks for that perfect route up to Castle and Pinnacle basin area.

Thank Gary Vogt he broke trail the whole way.

2/7/10 11:23am

mick_scott

author=bakershredda link=topic=15499.msg64846#msg64846 date=1265506555]
yes sir, road 38. park at the bridge and up ya go. funny thing is, the gate was open when i left, and I KNEW that it would be locked if i drove up. sure enough, at 7pm when I got back to the car, it was still open. Oh well, got my exercise for the day.

I know of plenty of gate horror stories - better to be safe than sorry.

2/7/10 8:12am

ema

Nice shot of Warm Cr. chutes (last pic). El Nino winters definitely have great qualities. Road access in one of them, as well as extended periods of stable snow and sunshine!!! Thanks for the report, heading up there tomorrow.

2/7/10 6:33am

ebeam

Fun video. Good job getting in there for some winter conditions.

2/7/10 6:03am

clozner

Everest Bill - Here's one pic from the day. Great snow on both sides of the ridge, although south-facing had a sun crust under the new snow. We did a whole bunch of short laps. Fun day. - C

2/7/10 4:59am

BillK

That fifi/rubber band thing could work!

Thanks for the info, Sky. Did they anchor it with pitons, stoppers, a bollard ??? I'm always looking for new ways to bail safely without leaving too much gear. Any idea of their reasoning in leaving the rope? Like you said probably: they're coming back.

As always, I'm impressed with your tech skills and willingness to work hard (and smart) to get the goods and worthy goals. You and yo...

2/7/10 3:36am

BillK

Thanks for the geometry lesson...I'm a social worker, we don't do math ;)

I'm still in the dark about classic....unless he means it was so steep he was doing jump turns. A traverse across the fall line sounds more like "sucky line" than "classic". Are we allowed to say sucky?

EDIT: I think I finally get it...10 turns, traverse; 10 turns, traverse; 10 turns, traverse, etc, etc...to maximize vert on an off-fall line pitch. No qualit...

2/7/10 3:20am

skykilo

Smart-ass answer: Oh, we just used a Fifi hook with the rubber band trick on a v-thread.

Real answer: curious thing, Bill: there was a rope fixed at the top. I'm guessing you noticed the one-strand rappel. When we initially saw it, one impulse I had was to remove it. But, while raising many questions, it also proved convenient. We left it. I've sinced learned whose rope it was and I do believe they'll be recovering it.

I had a co...

2/7/10 1:40am

glenn_b

Let us now praise famous snow dogs. Mine was named Levi, a sensible and accomplished Shepherd/yellow lab a few of you might have known. I do have regrets about taking him on some arduous(for him) tours in too deep snow. Be gentle with them since they gots to posthole down everything we get to slide. Cool trip and vid, thanks.

2/6/10 3:25pm

TonyM

author=BillK link=topic=15503.msg64859#msg64859 date=1265514161]
?

Please explain... if it's classic, I wanna know :)

It's a classic traverse off the the fall line:

http://www.mathopenref.com/perpendicular.html

2/6/10 12:47pm

ughly skier

Hey allmtn: Did you park at the rest area just East of the summit? I skied that area last spring with a Renoan. . . Renoite . . .uh . . . dude that lives there and got into some great terrain, nice variety. How feasible is it to gain access to the North facing slopes off of I-80 (I think that's the main East/West freeway out of Reno to Cal.). . . (Renoburgher?)

2/6/10 12:10pm

BillK