TR Replies

April 17, 2004, Mt. Hood, Hogsback

The SE Face was in great shape at this hour, softened to really excellent corn from 9050 ft down to about 8000 ft. Below that, the snow grew increasingly mushy and unconsolidated, as I followed the SE Face all the way down to the end of the clearing at 6300 ft. Upon reaching the forest, it was time to start skiing and traversing SE to try to rejoin Road 3650 (skiing straight down the fall line from here would bring you out to Hwy 140 at 4800 ft about 1.5 miles...

4/20/04 7:03pm

Amar Andalkar

Was able to ski "Glade" all the way down to Gov't Camp.

Cool. I've wanted to ski from the top of Hood all the way down to Govt Camp for quite a while now. How did you get back from there to Timberline? Did you hitchhike, have a second car, or is there any local bus service?

4/20/04 6:57pm

Amar Andalkar

I have a NOAA weather radio I got cheap at a garage sale. . . It gives the same forecast on the National Weather Service web site, except vocalized through an automated computer voice.

I have the automated phone info numbers of several local NWS offices throughout the Cascades programmed into my cell phone, these also give the same short-term forecasts as the NWS web site (and most people have cell phones but not weather radios). However, the hu...

4/20/04 10:38am

Paul, it was in planned trips about a week prior, see you next year 8)

4/19/04 10:15pm

jimjar

Best picture??? That's a hard one. I am undecided between Skip on the Pony and Greg in the chute. Can't we just have two?

4/19/04 9:07pm

Paul_Russell

Looks like a great time and will have to put on the calendar for next year. I didn't hear about the event until Friday night from Kenji and made other plans. Maybe it could be posted on TAY in advance next year for those of us who may not hear about it otherwise? Or maybe it was and I missed it....

4/19/04 6:59pm

JMor

I've been thinking of the photo contest, as to which is the "best". Here we have our youngest member of the 2nd Annual CM Ski Fest, Tom Skoog 7 years of age, playing the all time, grown up, American sport of baseball with his father Lowell, how cool is that, baseball at the top of Forest Queen, :D then we have Skip riding the pony home, which, as young kids, we all remember the thrill of that first sled ride, probably not on the wild pony though. ;) Then we have the a...

4/19/04 6:35pm

teledave

April 18, 2004, Mount Townsend

I enjoyed meeting all of you on Sunday. That was the greatest gathering of bc skiers I've seen since moving to Seattle. A big thanks to Ron and Kam, especially to Kam-next year I volunteer to haul the second camelback, and some more of those soon-to-be-famous footlong brats.

Oh yeah, Skip schussing the keg gets my vote.

4/19/04 6:32pm

scottb505

Thanks for the info, Bill. Sounds like the other trailhead would be the way to go as a start point.

4/19/04 12:03pm

gregL

Thanks, Stefan, next time I'll try not to forget my camera so I can reciprocate! Is this the one you wanted to post? Hope you don't mind, I took the liberty of PhotoShopping out your shadow . . . it was a pleasure making turns with you!

http://homepage.mac.com/mpobrien/silverking1_600.jpg

4/19/04 8:19am

sag

It was nice to meet and get a few turns with you all. I would post a pic of GregL in the chute on the king, but I can't seem to get it to work. so you can view it with the rest of my photos here
http://community.webshots.com/album/135896094xKQKph?979

4/19/04 6:56am

ron j

April 17, 2004, Mt. Hood, Hogsback

Yeah, the name thing does tend to clutter an already cluttered mind a bit more, doesn't it? Great solution, Kam!
And it would only be appropriate if the name tags were fashioned from duct tape - eh? :D
I'll bring the duct tape and the magic marker next year... that is, provided my dementia plagued brain can remember that far ahead (or would that be behind? Behind ! wait - that reminds me... oh - never mind).

Chris - I'm gonna have to give ya the nod on the vote for the best ph...

4/19/04 6:48am

PDX-XCD

I asked at the ticket window on Saturday, April 17:
$16 to top of Palmer and apparently they may require you to show MLU.
$ 8 to top of Magic Mile.

I skied the lifts all day for $32 to try my new T3s & Karhu Dorado's.
I'm new to this game, having just graduated from either skiing cross-country & leather or regular alpine gear. Hoping to do some skinning next weekend. Would welcome suggestions for Hood terrain.

4/19/04 6:42am

JMor

For next year I suggest that we all show up with a name tag that says:

TAY Login: ______________
Real Name: ______________

-kam

It's funny you should metnion that, since I have some REALLY fun things I'm thinking about already for next year too, and one of them was the "name" issue. It was quite hilarious, skinning up the hill, hearing someone behind you, you'd turn around to see how close they were and...

4/19/04 5:36am

cascadesfreak

Likewise, thanks y'all for the great time yesterday :)
I think my vote for best "entry photo" so far has got to be Skip "riding the pony" downhill ;)
Cheers!
-Cascadesfreak (a.k.a. "Chris") ;)

4/19/04 5:08am

Great time! Thanks to Ron and Jeanette for putting it on, and those very special brew haulers 8) Love that shot of Kelvin, however I think the top photo has to be that of Skipper riding the pony home ;D

http://images.snapfish.com/33%3A564%3B523232%7Ffp46%3Dot%3E2329%3D%3B33%3D3%3A9%3DXROQDF%3E23234%3C%3B4%3A%3A8%3C8ot1lsi
See the rest of mine at

4/19/04 4:59am

kam

I had a great time yesterday and many thanks to Skip, philfort, Kelvin, zenom and Allyson for their help hauling the "special" cambelbak. Also, thanks for emptying it too!

For next year I suggest that we all show up with a name tag that says:

TAY Login: ______________
Real Name: ______________

-kam

4/19/04 3:35am

md2020

April 18, 2004, Mount Townsend

thanks to everyone. Brenda and I had a great time meeting new ski friends. We'll be looking forward to next year's celebration.

4/19/04 3:19am

Bill_G

Scott,

That north run was probably the other route up Mt Townsend. It's a bit faster and more direct, although a little steeper. It does, however, let you ski home. The north chutes are fun and yes a bit on the short side. They'll be around for a while - generally melt out in early June.

Bill G

4/19/04 12:15am

alpentalcorey

April 17, 2004, Mt. Hood, Hogsback

Nice report! I was under the impression that they didn't allow people with skis to buy a one ride ticket. It seems like I may have been wrong?

4/18/04 11:28pm

skip

Thanks again to Ron, Jeanette, and everyone else for the good time - I'm looking forward to next year.

I've posted some of the better pics I took at:
http://community.webshots.com/album/135720477IwDrJa

The best, however, I think has to be this one of Kelvin:
http://home.comcast.net/~spavined/kelvin.jpg

See you in the hills.
-s

4/18/04 9:34pm

ron j

As a matter of fact, my first nomination for the "feature photo" in this thread is Paul's shot of the Skoogs:

That's the great Lowell Skoog on the mound, with Ken Madden trying to coach Lowell on how to make the snowballs a little more durable under the relentless bat of the ferocious Tom Skoog.

4/18/04 9:17pm

ron j

My pics are at:
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/pictures
(Please forgive the odd date stamp -- I was having a "bad battery" day >:( )
I'm certain some of the other shutterbugs must have got some cool party pics.
I'm thinking we should have a contest for the coolest/funniest/most unique skifest photo to be the "real" photo for this thread.
If everyone with photos posted their "entry photo" on this thread (along with a link to the rest of th...

4/18/04 8:31pm

snoslut

April 17, 2004, Hogsback Mountain, White Pass

Was a great time fo sure. Thanx to Ron J and Mad_Dog for arranging it. Was nice putting faces to all those creative poster names. I can't wait to see some of the hundreds of pictures that were shot that day. Till next time... ;D

4/18/04 4:43am

Robie

Continuing after a inadvertant post !
We skied the whole classic banana. I'm hoping that area never becomes developed.After skiing we retired to a mass dinner in Eatonville basking in our sunburt faces and beer.

4/17/04 10:13pm

Sam Avaiusini

April 2-4, 2004, Nooksack Traverse

Hey thanks, Amar! :)
I tried what you said and it looks like it cut about .5MB off the file size. I've never been pleased with the file sizes out of TOPO, but I think this is an improvement, for sure. I'll save them as .GIFs from now on and will probably redo the other maps on my site as well.

Thanks again for the input!

4/16/04 1:26am

Zap

We are presently at Schat's Bakery in Bishop using our Sierra Wireless card in our laptop and a T-Mobile link to cruise the internet. A day off from skiing due to a storm in the Sierras. Love this wireless technology. Big high pressure system building on Tuesday. The Eastern Sierras are at their peak.

Zap

4/16/04 12:31am

ron j

Great info, Amar.
That should certainly be encouraging for those that were planning in skiing St Helens this weekend.

4/15/04 11:04pm

ski_photomatt

April 2-4, 2004, Nooksack Traverse

I have a NOAA weather radio I got cheap at a garage sale. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but most often I can pick up forecasts near cities. It's highly likely that mine is somehow broken and a new one might work better. It gives the same forecast on the National Weather Service web site, except vocalized through an automated computer voice.

4/15/04 9:01pm

Amar Andalkar

I just added a map of our route to the last page of my TR...if anyone cares.

Sam, nice trip report. But that map file is really HUGE. May I make a suggestion about this map (and perhaps other maps on your site)? You should save them as GIF files instead of JPG, I think they'll be much smaller and also less blurry. Some maps compress acceptably in JPG format, but others do not. Let me try to explain what has happened in this case.

This map...

4/15/04 8:41pm

Amar Andalkar

One question: You allude to getting weather forecasts while you are traveling. If you don't mind me asking, what is your source for accurate forecasts while you are on the road?

Well, the internet is the only place to find reasonably accurate forecasts. On previous long Cascades trips, I used to hunt around for internet cafes and public libraries with internet access in various nearby towns. But since I bring my ancient (circa 2000) laptop along...

4/15/04 8:19pm

Amar Andalkar

Telemetry from the Swift Creek SNOTEL site shows that the south side of Mt Saint Helens has received close to 2 ft of new snow the past couple of days (above 3700 ft, with more rain & less snow below that). That is by far the most of any location in the Cascades during the current storm system, while the Oregon Cascades from Mt Hood all the way south to Crater Lake have also gotten close to 1 ft of new snow.

4/15/04 8:02pm

ron j

April 10-11, 2004, Snow King Mountain

Great Pics, Jerry.
Hope you can do as well this Sunday at Crystal!!
http://www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=ha3;action=display;num=1081524254

4/15/04 6:58pm

wickstad

I think your last picture is the one that is suppose to accompany the route description by Burgdorfer. The picture in my edition was taken from Ruth Mountain.

4/15/04 4:52pm

April 11, 2004, South Peak, Sierra Nevada

I burned my feet down there Ron, told you it was a bad idea :D My photos finally @

4/15/04 10:02am

markharf

You're in fine form on this report, Zap. Between you and Amar, I'm weeping softly over my keyboard.

Come home safe,

Mark

4/15/04 8:36am

Zap

Amar,

Thanks for theTR. Jill and I skied at Bachelor on the 7th and I passed the TH for McLoughlin that afternoon. I was tempted to tour there on the 8th but decided to try after our trip in the Eastern Sierras. Also plan to return to Lassen and ski the NW side this time. Jill has never skied Shasta so if the weather looks good we'll probably stop by there. The touring in the Tahoe and Eastern Sierras has been great. In 2005, you need to go a bit furthe...

4/15/04 4:04am

Paul_Russell

Thanks for the report Monika. A few additional comments:

This guy was really lucky. He had only minor facial abrasions and a badly cut lip, otherwise he was fine although in a bit of shock. I can't imagine riding into a creavasse, and how he managed to land safely on a ledge.

We were descending at about 2:00pm when we saw a crowd of snowmobilers hanging out below. They called over for help, asking if we had a rope. I realized at this point what had hap...

4/15/04 1:39am

snoslut

Um....this is why snowmobilers top the list in bc accidents during the winter. I am glad to hear that he lost his sled and not his life. Others are not so fortunate. Maybe that person will think twice next time and stay off glaciers jackass. On another note that's too bad that the USFS doens't enforce this. Nothing against snowmobilers (the ones with common sense anyway). I saw snowmobilers at Crystal last year and it just pissed me off! Loud, annoying, and tearing up the sub-alpine. Mad...

4/14/04 11:21pm

Monika

Paul Russell did report the incident to the Mt. Baker Ranger Station. Here is a link to a discussion of the incident including environmental considerations (or lack there of).

http://www.cascadeclimbers.com/threadz/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/332925/page/0/view/collapsed/sb/5/o/all/fpart/1

4/14/04 10:58pm

Jeff Huber

Wow! Kudos on the great trips, Amar! It's unfortunate about the weather.

One question: You allude to getting weather forecasts while you are traveling. If you don't mind me asking, what is your source for accurate forecasts while you are on the road?

Thanks!

4/14/04 9:25pm

wolfs