TR Replies
Fill me in. Is this partly a joke or partly an object lesson, or both? ???
..., Jerry!... Didn't I hear you whining about a sore hip?
Actually, Darryl, he did surprisingly well considering his condition. Just a modicum of bellyaching during uphill kick turns and one intimate encounter with a tree while rocketing downhill (which I got a shot of but was discrete enough not to publish it).
We were fully expecting to have TWO invalids to listen to on the trip; we even had a second walker all set up for you to m...
Naw. It was the Fig Newtons.
Nice pictures of the hoars, Jerry! They're beauts!! Didn't I hear you whinning about a sore hip?
Great trip report, Jeanette!
Great trip report, Jeanette!
...in random circles within a pharmaceutically-enhanced fogbank
Oh, so that's why you kept insisting on sharing your water with us on the drive up.
Thanks for the report Matthaeus. That was an adventurous undertaking!
Tim, I am curious about the various approaches to Baker in the winter, and you seem like someone who would know. With conditions like they are now, do you know how access would compare for the Easton, Boulder, and Coleman routes?
Tim, I am curious about the various approaches to Baker in the winter, and you seem like someone who would know. With conditions like they are now, do you know how access would compare for the Easton, Boulder, and Coleman routes?
Nice report, Mad_Dog - tons of snow info, no fluff. I will have to remember to get back to writing mine like that sometimes ;)
Nice photo, too, Ron. Maybe Matthaeus will see it and I will finally be able to get him to agree to go there.
Nice photo, too, Ron. Maybe Matthaeus will see it and I will finally be able to get him to agree to go there.
Yeah, for being back to the beer by 1:00 we got some great turns in. I think MadDog managed the spotlight for the best shot I got:
More at:
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/crystalbackcountry2804.msnw
More at:
http://groups.msn.com/WildHeartsSkiing/crystalbackcountry2804.msnw
We were there on Saturday and it was nice. Saw the scouts at the lake and spent the day in the bowls to the north. Sunday we were busy with ski lessons given to us by Steve Hindman.
Imagine my shock, horror and outrage at discovering this morning that Charles and Russ had betrayed my trust by revealing that the backcountry stash formerly known as "The Secret Bowl Where Everybody Goes" is actually the hard-frozen debris fan formed by serac fall off the Hanging Glacier! Even worse, their utter moral collapse rendered meaningless the four and a half hours I spent leading them around in random circles within a pharmaceutically-enhanced fogbank: time I might otherwise...
Good report, but sorry about the snowmobilers.
I used to be the caretaker of the Park Butte lookout above Morovitz's Meadows, but gave it up when snowmobilers were allowed onto the plateaus in the area. That resulted from a bad concession in the negotiations that created the Mt Baker/Diobsud Wilderness area.
If you get back up on the S. side of Baker, try Boulder ridge. Much better isolation, and crevasse-free skiiing to 9500 ft elevation.
I used to be the caretaker of the Park Butte lookout above Morovitz's Meadows, but gave it up when snowmobilers were allowed onto the plateaus in the area. That resulted from a bad concession in the negotiations that created the Mt Baker/Diobsud Wilderness area.
If you get back up on the S. side of Baker, try Boulder ridge. Much better isolation, and crevasse-free skiiing to 9500 ft elevation.
Funny how conditions can be so different depending on where you were. Anyway with all the excitement over the weekend I failed to mention conditions in greater detail. Sorry. I will make the adjustment on my original trip report.
Either we were under more of a cloud or on a different enough aspect that we didn't see that crust in the open areas except down low. The hoar frost on the trees was indeed trippy - the fog had been doing its work.
I've posted a different pic above, courtesy of Silas, that gives a good sense of the snow in the forest. For more, check out
I've posted a different pic above, courtesy of Silas, that gives a good sense of the snow in the forest. For more, check out
Maybe we talked. I was going up to meet some scouts camped at the lake, then skiing with one of the dads. We got in 2 laps, finding untracked, but with one of mine ending up following down a snowshoers track into a steep thicket of firs, taking off skis and postholing up to my waist. >:( for a stretch.
This was a neat trip. Thanks for putting it together Phil.
What a difference from the typical Glacier Basin experience. No people. All the peaks are covered with their winter coats. Vegetation fights its way upward from the valley. Above, broad, wind scoured ridge lines gradually steepen into an unbroken expanse of white. The two collide. The trees creep upwards where they can, but in gullies the snow rules and cuts a dramatic path clear to the va...
What a difference from the typical Glacier Basin experience. No people. All the peaks are covered with their winter coats. Vegetation fights its way upward from the valley. Above, broad, wind scoured ridge lines gradually steepen into an unbroken expanse of white. The two collide. The trees creep upwards where they can, but in gullies the snow rules and cuts a dramatic path clear to the va...
"with the exception of one lone skinner headed for the Coleman Pinnacle area. (Expect a TR from Darin shortly!)
"
Not me! I'm way to lazy to break trail to Coleman Pinnacle in those conditions. With an early start on Sunday we skied the super-duper-secret SE ridge of Artists Point before crust pushed us onto much nicer slopes on it's east face, skied "The Line" on the way out and were drinking beer at the north fork by 1 PM.
"
Not me! I'm way to lazy to break trail to Coleman Pinnacle in those conditions. With an early start on Sunday we skied the super-duper-secret SE ridge of Artists Point before crust pushed us onto much nicer slopes on it's east face, skied "The Line" on the way out and were drinking beer at the north fork by 1 PM.
hey Don, I was out there as well at the super secret stash this wknd. i dont know how all those other people (50 snowshoers, 10 ski parties, boarders, walkers, solo dogs) found out about it. must be the web, eh?
luckily i still managed 3 laps in untracked powder.
luckily i still managed 3 laps in untracked powder.
It was a wonderfull day with some great companions.We talk a lot about the snow on this site but sometimes we forgot how important the companions are to the BC experiance. This was a steller group, great stories on the up track and excellent role models for my 16 year old. (Thanks you Mark for not telling your drug stories-hitch hiking across Africa was adequate).
On the way home I was a bit wistfull, my son whom I dragged up to Baker early in life actually drove us both up...
On the way home I was a bit wistfull, my son whom I dragged up to Baker early in life actually drove us both up...
I was just preparing to post our Baker frolics very near where you folks were. Since we were in the same area, I'll submit as a comment to your report.
Saturday Rod and I scouted around Table Mountain (the Chain Lakes Loop) for suitable chutes, runs and aspects. We found a few to our liking, most notably the long snowfinger to the skiers left of Mazama point, the rocky outcrop on the SW corner of the Mazama Plateau. Ours were the only tracks between the Artists Point ridge and Herman Sa...
Saturday Rod and I scouted around Table Mountain (the Chain Lakes Loop) for suitable chutes, runs and aspects. We found a few to our liking, most notably the long snowfinger to the skiers left of Mazama point, the rocky outcrop on the SW corner of the Mazama Plateau. Ours were the only tracks between the Artists Point ridge and Herman Sa...
Damn, no wonder my legs are tired today. ;)
hey ross, moonlight bowl refers to the slopes between the upper cell tower and yodelin. the nice open runs that take you from the ridge back down to the PCT, up to the stevens lot or down to yodelin. hope that helps.
Similar experience in nearby (same?) area. Foot of something close to powder over bomb crust w quality of the newish snow varying from edgy to quite good depending on elev aspect and exposure. Snow in the trees was typically better, even at ~5000 elevations the snow that was open to the sky had just a hint of sun crust or maybe even radiative heating effects (it was foggy most of the day but warmish). Tracks made through this stuff tended to be 9" steep walled trenches, but somehow it still...
You can take sleds into White River campground. Unfortunately, the first five miles of 410 between the closure and the White River road, is plowed (while we were setting up the sled to go in, a ranger with tele skis on his truck drove up, opened the gate, and drove up the closed road). There was enough new snow on the road surface on the way in Saturday, but coming out, much of it had melted, so we had to stay on the narrow chunky snowbank (in the dark).
Cool trip, Phil.
How far up could you take the sled?
How far up could you take the sled?
A tour I've studied and studied and never quite managed to make happen. Maybe tomorrow's the day (in somwhat-better-than "alright to not-quite-ok" powder). Thanks for the report.
Last year I waited until the road melted until just to Windy Pass (but with continuous snow the rest of the way), and the dilemma was resolved (left lots of time for exploring up high and a nice lap or two in that lovely basin).
A real gear junkie would carry the AT gear on the approach, skiing on skate gear, then switching to AT for the climb. Voila! ;D
Yes, Lowell, the same. Haven't seen you since Avalanche II at Crystal, I guess . . . 5 years ago? Hope to see you in the mountains soon, I'm often at Alpental Mon. (AT day) -T-W and with the kids on Sat.
I've done the "road" portion of the trip several times this year on my skate skis, but hadn't thought of AT gear until I saw your report. Negotiating the turns coming down on XC skis at speed is pretty entertaining, though, and the cardio workout going up is hard to beat.
Greg Louie
During the trip, I wondered what would be the ideal gear for this tour. AT gear was overkill for the road, but skating gear would have been inadequa...
Yeah, Ron - from my own calibration on this route, I'm gonna guess that I couldn't do the Ptarmigan Traverse as a day trip either...
I used a sort of lopsided, peg-leg stride, the way Captain Ahab might have skied if he'd been Norwegian.
aw, what a clever way to describe it!
Sounds like fun, Lowell - I've done the "road" portion of the trip several times this year on my skate skis, but hadn't thought of AT gear until I saw your report. Negotiating the turns coming down on XC skis at speed is pretty entertaining, though, and the cardio workout going up is hard to beat.
Greg Louie
Greg Louie
Nice tour, Lowell.
You're making me feel older every day tho...
Last time I did that trip it took me eight hours!! ???
What's up with that?? :D
You're making me feel older every day tho...
Last time I did that trip it took me eight hours!! ???
What's up with that?? :D
For skiing the top 1K of Catherine, good downhill gear is well worth it, though it's indeed a minor slog getting it out to the base of the run...
Oh no, now the Nordic Pass area is getting crowded - skiers on two weekdays! md2020, I have done that trip a number of times, and though most of the runs are short, the forest draped in winter is so beautiful that it doesn't matter. A good extension is into Silver Peak bowl or up to Silver Peak itself. Definitely a place where lighter equipment works well, and a lot of the time wide waxless skis work great due to all of the low angle XC skiing terrain.
We went out near that area for the first time on Monday. Had a lot of fun, even though we missed our intended destination of Mt. Catherine. We skinned up Hyak, down the backside to the bridge. Then up into the old growth, but ended up going way too far west and came out at the base of Windy Pass. Since we had never been there we skinned out into the open to get a cloud limited view back at Catherine. Didn't see the hut, but since you mentioned it I was able to find it on the ma...
A friend of mine did this tour on that coooolllldd weekend right after new years (the same day my Vanagon froze up at the Smith Brook parking area while I was on Lichtenberg). Then another ski buddy sent me a link to this awesome web site and there it was again. I've yet to ski Arrowhead. Can someone please give me the beta on parking, getting started in the right direction, etc. Thanks.
Ski on,
Geoff
Ski on,
Geoff
sounds excellent. which one is moonlight bowl?
Nice, Gregg,
I get grins and warm fuzzies floating through knee deep freshies 5 minutes from the car. No, we don't get as many runs as they do in area, but it sure is pleasant, what we do, isn't it?
I get grins and warm fuzzies floating through knee deep freshies 5 minutes from the car. No, we don't get as many runs as they do in area, but it sure is pleasant, what we do, isn't it?
The lazy ski group (Yanna, Dina, and I) found the mank down low too (below maybe 4K), but also found some nicer stuff where sun hadn't hit it. What a great day for exploring a bit - the cover is getting really nice which opens up all sorts of opportunities...
That was fun yesterday. Very enjoyable up high, much less so as we descended into the muck and mank. I'll have to go back to check out the runs you guys did off to the right.
Nice pictures. My neighbor Mike and I mined the east slope of Mt. Hermann yesterday. Fast food powder five minutes from the baker parking lot. The snow was amazingly nice!!! We thought we were in Utah.
The grande boys were taking the big lines on Table. Most of been pretty stable as nothing went. Hope the weather lasts for another good weekend.
The grande boys were taking the big lines on Table. Most of been pretty stable as nothing went. Hope the weather lasts for another good weekend.
hard to put a price on turns when conditions are this good. ;D
Nicely said Snoslut, and as Ron said in reply to your lift serviced riding, "You certainly know how to find the inbound goods at crystal." Good job with staying one step ahead of the crowds. ;)
For sure one of my best days yet but I find myself saying that alot. ;D Yea the resort and it's bc (in some places) sure gets tracks on top of tracks on top of more quickly. Crystal is the mountain with a thousand locals and locals here can be referred to as locusts cause they harvest fresh snow like such. ;)
I caved in this year and purchased an unlimited pass but made my money back within 6 weeks (just before ski/board school starts). Even during those cash strapped seasons where the...
I caved in this year and purchased an unlimited pass but made my money back within 6 weeks (just before ski/board school starts). Even during those cash strapped seasons where the...
It was one of the best days yet! With deep freshies, sunny skies, and new untracked lines everywhere we were like a couple of kids with a quarter in a penny candy store and had our own "super bowl" party in the bc 8)
Looking over towards the lift serviced area at Crystal around 9:00 a.m. and seeing all the freshies already tracked out across the whole mountain, we just shook our heads, smiled and were glad that we were out earning our turns and not paying ($$) for t...
Looking over towards the lift serviced area at Crystal around 9:00 a.m. and seeing all the freshies already tracked out across the whole mountain, we just shook our heads, smiled and were glad that we were out earning our turns and not paying ($$) for t...
Nice pic. Looks like conditions were awesome in southback.
looks good out there can't wait till I can get out there again.