TR Replies

Dec 31, 2015, Twin Lakes Couloir bail

Beautiful country!

jtree

Pretty interesting! I came up later in the day from the East ridge and, after breaking trail for a few hours, came upon four or five other tracks right as we got to the couloir lip. Looked like at least four folks had dropped, so my partner and I became numbers five and six. We were worried about wind loading, too, but the prior group had slabbed off pretty much all there was to slab by the time we got there. Not sure how dicey it was for them, though. I would be curious to find out.

1/4/16 9:40pm

kamtron

December 18, 2015, Markhor Peak, Coquihalla

Fun!

1/4/16 2:28pm

kamtron

Went back yesterday 1/3/16 and found such different conditions! A lot of tree bombs had brought down the quality of the tree skiing, while the wind had scoured pretty much everything else. We went with the plan to ski CT chute, but bailed due to difficult travel and some wind slabs on the approach. It still was nice to get out and tour through the lakes. The chutes need a refresh before they're worth it again.

1/4/16 2:14pm

Charlie Hagedorn

Jan 3, 2016, Red Mtn (Cle Elum Valley)

Susan and I were surprised to see not one but two groups catch up with us. ("Do you hear voices? Nah. No, look, there's another group way back there on the skintrack!") It was great to meet and ski with all of you. The first photo shows the lights of Allen, Brian (Bryce?), and Sam's headlamps as they crested the top of the Chatter Creek drainage after sunset.

It's an adventurous tour; do it more for the journey than for any one set of turns.

1/4/16 12:17pm

kamtron

Awesome, I love that tour! Seems to be holding up well despite the winds.

1/4/16 12:16pm

ErikT

January 2 - Rock Mtn

Ha, no, but the world is still rather small, though- Eric and I are friends, and were all crashing in Leavenworth together the night before.... Garrett, my wife and I explored Clara environs the day before, I think upon your recommendation to Garrett.... so nice out there!

1/4/16 11:31am

mikerolfs

Great trip! Great report! You hit the weather and snow perfectly. Thanks for sharing!

1/4/16 11:26am

mikerolfs

January 2 - Rock Mtn

That does look sweet!

Erik are you the same Erik that I gave a ride from Clara TH to car on Saturday?

1/4/16 9:12am

Bryan_B

Strong work finishing on Saturday. My brother and I were about a drainage behind you most of the day. Every time we'd crest a ridge, we'd see you cross the next. Thanks for putting in the skin track. We camped at Larch Lake Saturday night. Woke to snow showers and stiff E winds on Sunday. Got a real wind blasting crossing the ridge above Scottish Lakes. The Swath still skis nicely. Agreed, "Highway to Heaven" is a much better name.

1/4/16 8:07am

skier8484

author=silaswild link=topic=35310.msg144721#msg144721 date=1451875400]
"The swath"? In the old days known as "highway to heaven (above the Bible Camp)". :)

Highway to Heaven - I like it!

author=ErikT link=topic=35310.msg144724#msg144724 date=1451879239]
beautiful photos... had been thinking about that trip for the weekend, but settled on just skiing Rock on 2nd....

1/4/16 7:45am

Pete_H

1-1-16 , Hurricane Refrigerator

author=silaswild link=topic=35310.msg144721#msg144721 date=1451875400]
"The swath"? In the old days known as "highway to heaven (above the Bible Camp)". :)

AKA " The Funnelator" :)

1/4/16 7:17am

Gary_H

We found some lines on the north side of Hurricane Hill which had some nice untracked, settled powder. Great way to start off the new year!

1/4/16 2:42am

ErikT

beautiful photos... had been thinking about that trip for the weekend, but settled on just skiing Rock on 2nd. Stiff winds on ridgetop made summit traverse there a bit interesting, so I can imagine what it was like being exposed to that for longer!

Did the Swath get brushy down low? We weren't quite sure looking across the valley from the oblique angle from Rock.

1/4/16 2:36am

z-bo

nice work!

1/4/16 2:34am

silaswild

Jan 1, 2016, Mt. Rainier, Paradise environs

"The swath"? In the old days known as "highway to heaven (above the Bible Camp)". :)

1/4/16 2:30am

DenisSeattle

My pleasure, ron j, volunteering comes with nice benefits. 8)

And thanks for moving this post up. You can delete the reference post with the same title.

1/4/16 1:21am

PhilH

January 2, 2016. Colchuck Col

Strong work! Thanks for posting.

1/4/16 1:04am

AlpineRose

Your ambitious trip reminds us you don't have to be having fun to have fun.

1/4/16 1:00am

Kenji

Very nice! We were talking about the traverse when we were on Arrowhead/Rock. It's definitely on our list. Good to know the Swath is in a good shape. I love skiing powder with a headlamp :) Thanks for the report.

1/3/16 10:47pm

lrudholm

Methow Valley - New Year's 2016

Very nice!

1/3/16 2:09pm

dfhkvs

The 10 year old loved the target shooting...

1/3/16 12:43pm

jwplotz

January 2, 2016. Colchuck Col

Thanks!

Your trip looks like a whole new level of misery.

1/3/16 12:33pm

JibberD

Jan 1, 2016, Mt. Rainier, Paradise environs

Fantastic photos, Kenji. Thanks!

1/3/16 11:47am

ron j

Thanks, Denis,
For your report and your Volly Service.

1/3/16 11:45am

telefly

January 2, 2016. Colchuck Col

Wow, beautiful photos! And nice report. Thanks

1/3/16 10:43am

kciari

Nice report. I totally hear you on the cold and misery: 2014 January Suffering.

1/3/16 9:56am

Zap

Great TR and the photos were wonderful. Rocks West Face . ;)

1/3/16 8:54am

cumulus

Kendall W ridge right where the skin track pops out. Super popular of late. You may have gone by it when you exited via the Commonwealth from the twins...though you may have dropped in earlier, rather than traversing. Lookers right of the Kendall Peak Avalanche of April 9th, 2010.

Great to see slope testing before skiing. Once a skin track is in place seems some folks don�...

1/3/16 5:23am

kamtron

author=cumulus link=topic=35268.msg144646#msg144646 date=1451683448]
here's a pic of Kendall west ridge area Dec. 30 -

Cumulus, I'm curious, where exactly is this W ridge spot?

1/3/16 5:02am

kamtron

I'm glad to hear people got out again yesterday! Those winds were brutal (I tried going up Mt. Snoqualmie's S ridge for a change and got shut down by wind).

Here are a couple inline photos.

Opening the Mainline chute on a rope:

1/3/16 2:25am

cumulus

January 1, 2016, Tour De Hyak

just a conditions update...

here's a pic of Kendall west ridge area Dec. 30 -

We traveled through the same area the next day Dec. 31. None of the ski tracks in the above photo were extant. They were all blown over and there was a lot of highly reactive wind slab -

1/3/16 2:17am

telemack

Only a super-early bird could have gotten 2016 turns in before you---Congrats on the turns and the experience.

1/3/16 1:20am

bscott

December 31, 2015, - Mt. St. Helens - Soft Slabs

It's not a secret if you post pictures.

1/2/16 10:39pm

blackdog102395

Originally planned on lapping Monitor Peak. It was obvious that wasn't going to happen after breaking out of the trees and seeing the snow plumes billow hundreds of feet in the air off the ridge. Just to satisfy my curiosity I did nose over that way off the main climbing route. Everything was crazy cross loaded. Scary.

Toured up to about 5500K on the main route before the wind finally sent me packing. I was almost blown off my feet several times. The...

1/2/16 9:34pm

JKordel

Dec 30, Chair Peak circumnav

Hi Pete. Nice to see your group and others out on such a nice day. My son and I came past you with fresh legs off the high traverse first - sorry about that ;). We found our least wind affected snow in the wonder gully and experienced the wind board you mentioned on the north slopes of chair peak on our second run. Wind transported snow settled into more protected features were relatively reactive but we only observed this up to a few inches deep. I suspect best skiing to be found now would be...

1/2/16 2:03pm

author=vogtski link=topic=35270.msg144613#msg144613 date=1451609494]
Well-played; nifty tracks, thanks for the stoke!

One of the finest continuously steepish lines close to Paradise, that 'secret' was shown to me by an oldtimer back in the 70's and I passed the favor on to Ron J & Mad Dog in the 90's. The long steep snow ridge from the summit down to the lake to the E of your line was also sometimes done back then, but not b...

1/2/16 1:59pm

kciari

Mike and I followed up on this tour today (31st), and several others approached via Kendall, leaving any remaining untouched hero pow lines to the more creative out there. Really nice out, and thanks for the skin track! Beautiful bluebird day with some stiff winds on the ridge tops, blowing beautiful snow plumes all around.

1/2/16 1:05am

Griff

Dec 26, 28, 29, 2015, and Jan 1, 2016, ONP Hurricane

Nice, saw ur tacks as I headed up to Alpy yesterday. Very inspiring. Good work!!!

1/1/16 10:19am

ovrthhills

Nice meeting you on the trail on Tuesday. The south facing slopes skied pretty well considering how sunny they were.

Sidnie signing Hurricane Hill Bowl

1/1/16 5:39am

kamtron

Some photos of the 2 days are here:
https://goo.gl/photos/y8jjMfUkQBwjNfva9

Thanks to whoever put in the track to the top of Stirling, and to my awesome partners Brendan, Marina, and Will.

1/1/16 5:37am

lrudholm

Nice work.

1/1/16 5:24am

Gary Vogt

December 27, 2015, Mount Si

Well-played; nifty tracks, thanks for the stoke!

One of the finest continuously steepish lines close to Paradise, that 'secret' was shown to me by an oldtimer back in the 70's and I passed the favor on to Ron J & Mad Dog in the 90's. The long steep snow ridge from the summit down to the lake to the E of your line was also sometimes done back then, but not by me ;)

1/1/16 3:53am

degnaw

author=savegondor link=topic=35228.msg144501#msg144501 date=1451407387]
seems like there were some glades off the hiking trail?

Gave this a shot today! I basically cut the switchbacks the whole way down - didn't want to stray too far from the trail since I was solo. Trees are a bit thick so I couldn't pick up much speed, except in the clearing at the very beginning of the run - Also, spent about half the run traversing...

1/1/16 2:09am

rippy

Dec 25-26, The Jim Hell Project aka Jimmy Jab

Good choice and perseverance to the goal. The south end of Lanham lake and staying right was found to be our easiest up-climb. It's all steep but there are some better little lanes through the tree's & undulating features. We had a few "field trips" before jumping on an early start and getting to the col on a short winter day. I'm remembering the TUA Excalibers w/ Fritschi red n' whites now, whooaa. Great report and pictures as always!

1/1/16 1:22am

carlfofarl

December 17,15 Avalanche: Big Trees and Spin Drift

Hi Dave - My partner and I saw you and yours shortly after you had regrouped and started to head out. Thanks for sharing the details of your experience here for everyone to learn from.

Did you happen to dig a pit while you were out? My partner and I used the day as our skills refresher so we dug a pit on a Southern aspect and practiced burial search and rescue in some very low angle terrain. We noticed a repeatable and easy (between 5-10 hand hits) Sudden Planar shear failure at abou...

1/1/16 1:13am

Charlie Hagedorn