TR Replies
I don't hear anybody shaming anybody here. I see a respectful exchange of opinion. And that's a valuable thing... it's how we get access to other viewpoints and open things up for learning.
I'm with Darin and AJ...and Kyle. I don't have a problem with this one. It makes sense...and I'm glad Darin said something so that it gave Kyle the opportunity to articulate his curation. Win-win.
In general I do find that GPS seriously detracts from the wilderness experience on many levels...
Maybe im old fashion, but I tend to agree with Darin here. Fred Beckey already wrote our ski guide books decades ago and when new ski guide books come out (or a website) it tends to just crowd up different areas with more people. This new generation of explorers miss out on the opportunity to learn how to explore, they just stare at their phones following gps tracks and miss the lessons to be learned by ol Fred's creative descriptions. Just gotta head for the "obvious gully!" I personally lik...
Thanks Kyle! I've had a few failed (and some successful) attempts to explore for myself around the pass, from the Gold Creek TH even! It's nice to have a track like this to use with partners who have PTSD from Alpental Valley shenanigans 🤣
Nice work. We need to encourage people to spread out. Well said. I have looked at this glade for years as well. Maybe I’ll stop by some time.
Accessed via sled analog (tracked atv), road is plowed to just after the gravel pit from the lake Wenatchee side, so the approach is approximately 13 miles each way from that side. Without a sled I would have come in from Smith Brook, but that would be a lot of flat skining with big skis!
@darin-berdinka I understand where you are coming from. I think that there are plenty of opportunities for adventure that doesn't have detailed GPS tracks. There is not a shortage of that in the winter here in the Cascades. In many cases, I don't share detailed GPX tracks because I want people to have to put in more effort or I don't want crowding. The reason I shared more detailed beta here is because I feel that this is an underutilized zone that could take a decent amount of skiers and red...
I have never understand the mentality of keeping things secret. Backcountry skiing doesn't need to be a derivative of surfer culture. We need community in order to advocate for new trailheads, access, and ultimately to maintain our current access as developments at Mt. Rainer and the various ski resorts have shown. The way to build community is to be open and welcoming. Those who want solitude should walk a little further not shame others for sharing their experiences.
You do cool stuff and take great photos. But in this day and age maybe you don't need to post detailed gps tracks of your journeys. Let people invest a little cerebral effort to figure out the details and possibly risk their time and effort making the wrong decisions. Just a thought........
@arb looks fun! Did you access this with a sled or just skin the road? How long is the approach in winter? I'm not quite sure where the roads are plowed to.
Also, due to a gravitational anomaly we skied sideways all day.
Is there a way to manipulate image orientation within the TAY environment?
Love to find new partners Skip. I heard about all that reactive snow up there. I read the NW observations. Absolutely nothing moving at 4600’ where I was easing back into untracked snow. Funny I was warning the groups going up about coverage in the Talus, but now we know that wasn’t the issue.
i went to Mystery Ridge (a few miles north of Blewett Pass) for a couple hours this afternoon and there was a thin crust under 1” new. This sat on 12-16” of medium density snow wi...
Was waiting for a Blewett report. good for you and the knee. Getting consult on my replacement
this week
Blewett indeed was in on Sunday. It was also the most reactive storm snow I've ever seen! Nearly every little roll near 30 degrees was sliding on a weak layer of facets about 16 inches down. I never have triggered so many D1-1.5s in my life! But the snow depth is looking great and we didn't hit a single rock. It's looking good!
Avajane, love to ski with you and do some of the trail breaking. Give me a call at 206 nine nine two 6782. Thanks, Skip
@darin-berdinka there were quite a few tracks in the closer sidecountry that we eventually ran into, but remarkably no tracks in the big bowl (supposedly "Hidden Bowl") that we dropped into. Bet things would be more crowded during Splitfest!
Great photos. Sort of shocking no one had been out there. A friend recounts seeing 36? split boarders in that zone one year during splitfest.
I have seen tracks down "The Tube of Terror" (~10 yrs ago?). They in part were on very, very steep terrain on the skiers right side of the couloir itself possibly to avoid unskiable terrain at the top. It was very, very impressive looking. "Tune of Terror" seems like a wholey appropriate name.
And look...
Looks delish. I was thereabouts today and the wind had done a number on the snow! It's holding on in sheltered places, but sounds like yesterday was the day
Top-shelf TAY-stoke. Thanks for taking us along!
We didn't see any signs of instability. We did see some slide debris but it looked old. Now the tour was about a week ago and there has been lots of new snow so things are probably quite different now.
Thank you for the report! I’m curious if you experienced any areas of concern regarding avy risk.
Thanks for the report, awesome area! Hopefully the coverage will improve and we'll get some soft snow.
Fantastic trip! really cool to see the exit out the Middle Fork.
Rad! Made a similar overnighter a couple years back. We swung a left after the Holy Diver and skied a nice line into Wildcat Lake. Our route back took us over Caroline and Kaleteen. There's plenty of variations with that terrain out there, just tough to know if and when youll be getting into a shwack!
Thanks for reviving the memories.
cumulus, yes I agree!
micah, you absolutely should!
Super cool trip -- I love this kind of bush-whacky traverse. Makes me want to start looking at all the crazy lines I have drawn on maps over the years.... thanks for posting.
Nice! Great photos and I like your route. The unknown and adventure often go hand in hand. A bit more snow and those forest logs could be fun!
Thanks for the great trip report. We were skiing on Saturday and saw your skin track heading up to Roosevelt. Sounds like a great trip.
Fantastic! Thanks for the TR! Sounds like a great Cascadian adventure 🥳
Great photos and writing. Looks to be a beautiful area back there
First photo: That moment when my normally gung-ho spouse looses her enthusiasm for touring.
I don't think there was much direction to the fog. It was a very calm day overall, just some localized air movement near the ridges.
I just read more about fogbows here: https://atoptics.co.uk/droplets/fogbow.htm
It suggests that the effect is more distinct when the droplets in the fog are of uniform size, which is more likely when the fog is newly formed. I think that is what happened...
Sweet fogbow. Did it look like the fog came in from any particular direction? East? West?
I was wondering who broke trail that morning.. kudos!!
WAZ
Thanks for the report. What was the snow quality? The snow looks a little heavy in the uptrack photo.
I've been to Arrowhead a couple of times in the past decade. It looks like you didn't get high enough to ski the best area. There is nice open terrain from the summit down to 5250'. CalTopo shows the slope angle as 30*-34*, so a little steeper than recommended last weekend.
Thanks for mentioning the "Shared Maps" feature. I didn't know about it. When I used i...
As of this morning, 13 December, 1,820 people signed the petition petition to keep Paradise accessible Paradise being plowed by two snowplows this morning at 9 a.m., closed to the public.
Hmm, there's a lot more lines on your attached map than I seem to be able to bring up on CT. I chose "all data" Oh well, just curious.
Wow, someone even uploaded the NE trees. I'll check out the "shared maps". Thanks!
Hey John,
I go to Caltopo and turn on the "Shared CalTopo Maps".
And you are right, just need to pick the pine needles out of my teeth and then might be up for exploring that area again and when we have more time.
Good advice Kam. Imagination in collaboration with the space around you can bring good results...and its always three dimensional (kinda like frankfrank's Brocken spectre shadow! )
Thanks for the report. I'll be skiing vicariously these next few months so keep 'em coming
Hello Waz,
Thank you for the report. I have a quick Q for you, how do you search CalTopo for trip reports? I've found the scrolling down takes forever and is completely limited to the whim "titleling" by the reporter. I must be missing something.
"this is an area I don't think we need to return to"
Good zone up there.
Wazlamont, just go explore and you'll figure it out.
frankfrank-
There's a lot of discussion of your question over on nwhikers, esp. the 3rd & 4th pages:
https://www.nwhikers.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=8036555
Here some current job postings for the park. These are for jobs starting in the spring, but I figure it gives us some idea of why winter staffing could be short.
https://www.usajobs.gov/job/691759000
860 people have signed the petition as of this morning. Let's keep it rolling!
Nice photos! Keep posting! I can't believe the lack of pow pics here over the last week and a half 😢