TR Replies

Thanks for the report, Jeff - Great picture, as usual!

Nice photo.

welcome "Ericd"!  Thanks for the conditions update in the Stevens Pass vicinity.  I had been wondering if that obnoxious breakable crust was still persisting up there this week  ;).
--Chris

How much of the twin lakes road is there? I'm thinking of checking out the area and want to gauge how early of a start I should get (hopefully the snow is better than what was posted here!). Some corn would be nice.

My altimeter said 6400', Big Boy. Wind was prob. 60-70mph!! You need to buy that Brunton wind guage.  MMMM, Extra Tuong sauce on those open face fish tacos yields a sweet ambrosia for wind chapped lips.

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You were probably following our tracks.  Overall, quite a nice morning.  The sky was clear, the peaks were out and white.  Not a breath of wind.  We three met up with MW88888888 and broke a difficult trail above the quad to Shot Six's exit.  Turns in the open were delightful -- if you could stay perfectly balanced over your skis.  I emphasize perfectly because any thing else yielded less stellar results (at least on our modest mid-fat to less fat skis).  ...

I'm not a detective, Michael. That's the exact set-up I ski, and I like it! If you look hard at http://www.turns-all-year.com/indexyrsimages/hostetlerb/pho.html you'll recognize my Trab Piuma Sintesis. My technical skiing is intermediate level. The skis do everything I ask and are delightfully light on the uphill. The newest model Dynafit binding is a good one. Happy skiing!

26" should just about do it - at least until lunch on Saturday . . .

Mark, I usually never leave a powder event but I had to return to Seattle for a couple of doctor appts on Wednesday.  Even more important , Jill and I take my grandson(age 3) for his ski lesson at Mini Mtn in Bellevue(an indoor revolving carpet).  I must admit that I have been working on the development of his "sherpa"  skills since his arrival.  The first words he heard from me on day 1 was "how much fun it is to break trail for grandpa and also carrying some...

Nice photo Greg!  Powder on the rocks at Crystal, been there, done that, didn't get the shirt, but still have the remnants of owie in the base even though the skis have been through a stone grind. Sounds like you had a fun time though.

For our post-dining pleasure Crystal dished up a wind-affected powder cocktail, unfortunately served "on the rocks" - Even at best, there is 18-20" of fresh over a base of basically nothing (some aspects had a few inches of refrozen granular snow underneath, but not enough to protect bases from rocks). If I didn't have a pair of rock skis before . . .

If you don't mind reliving the horror, where were you when you encounter...

Thx for the update.

I spent the 7th and 8th at Baker enjoying the powder.  On the 7th I ended up touring just outside the ski boundary. I planned to ski Herman but the road to the upper lodge was closed.  A tow truck was attempting to winch a vehicle out of a ravine about 100' down.  Someone didn't make the hairpin turn and had a slalom ride in their vehicle down the ravine. Spent the night in the camper at the White Salmon lot and woke to 3" new and a continous storm all day. Another 3" fe...

Hey Rob, good touring with you.  (I was one of the "4 guys from Seattle".)  What a day we ended up having, eh?  I expected the upper slope to be OK (of course it was not just OK but great), but those last few plunging turns after hitting the trees were just plain awesome.  The total vertical for the day was 4,400', if you're into that kind of info.  And now we know what the hill is called: Tye Peak.

Pictures would be great, if you want to shoot me...

You gotta be careful of the ninjas when skiing after dark...

The weather changed incredibly fast when we were up there. If went from incredibly beautiful - one could see all the big peaks with deep blue skies and lazy mists in the valleys - to full on blizzard in less than a few hours. It was if a wizard were summoning in the clouds and they came out of nowhere - like Saruman at the pass of Caradhas.

Several times when one of us stepped out of our bindings, we would fall into botto...

Lovin that bushwackin, oh well at least we all were out there doing something! 8)

Yep, a little bushwackin is always good for the soul, but I had a great time trying out some new gear.   8) Was able to get a short sweet dance in though, and it was a goodie, (guess who didn't fall down)  ;D

Don't think you're the only winner, Kam.  
With over 30 inches at Paridise last Sunday we still managed to do nearly as well as you, in finding the least covered areas with the most bushwhacking points available for the area.

that picture reminds me of the time I tried to go to Yodelin too early in the season

I did the same early season Jim Hill trip a few years ago - alder maddness. Of course I didn't learn since I went with Bud on his Yodelin trip as well. I'd like to think I know better now, but I'd only be fooling myself.  ;)

it seems I didn't miss much after all...
Good.

I don't know who the would-be skier is in the photo, but the choices of skis (Trab) and bindings (Dynafit) are good ones ;) And the photo explains the name of Jim Hell.

When I have days like that, I try to justify them by pointing out that I need the exercise.  Which I generally do.

The return trip on the Porcupine Creek side of Cutthroat isn't even much fun on skis.  The Cutthroat Lake side is preferable, but there are still a couple of miles of undulating traversing before you hit the forest road, where you could probably glide out if someone were to break a path for you.  Neither side makes an ideal snowboard tour.  

As you...

A friend and I spent three days in the parking lot at Baker Fri - Sun watching the avy conditions change.  Markh is spot on.

Fri - new snow couple inches over crust with snow falling, nice tour with visibility in manky powder.  temps in the low 30s

Sat - 24 hr sn: 8" and snow falling hard; temps still very warm.  While climbing we distinctly hear settling noises in the new slab so cancelled our tour and stuck to mellower terrain.  Then sat pm all hell broke loose.  Wind picks...

Snow at Steven's was fluffy.  There was 20" at the measuring station on top of Daisy Chair.  I think last week there was 10".  Snow was fluff.  Real powder.
Just a bit unnerving with the low coverage.  

Pretty much the path of least resistance is to skin up to Tye/Mill pass.  Lots of folks with the same idea but still fresh tracks were found.

I actually asked Elisa if we should join you guys (not knowing who it was but seeing the car parked at the
pull-out).  I thought the road might be fun.

We managed to make some decent turns at the ski area.
Just a quicky on the way home from Wenatchee.