Month: March 2009

Six (plus one dog) of us met across the highway from the main Stevens Pass ski area this morning at 9:00.  Mike Palmer, who is an instructor and main coordinator for the Everett Mountaineers ski mountaineering course, offered to lead this jaunt.

Heather Ridge is a popular area among backcountry skiers and snow shoers.  There was a fairly well-established track up the main trail.  While we waited for two members of our party who kept falling back due to equipment problems, several parties of skiers passed us.  That's always worrisome because they might get to the place we want to ski first and ski out the good lines before we get there.  Not to worry.  There's plenty of area to ski all over the place.  Plus the weather was a little on the snowy and blowy side (okay, a lot on the the snowy and blowy side) so only the truly dedicated (er, crazy) skiers go out.  Also, in these conditions, i.e. high avalanche danger conditions, backcountry skiers are forced to ski together in all the same safe places.  On moderate days we can spread out more.

Anyway, we got to the ridge, the two who were having equipment problems opted to not continue with us, and surprisingly we were the only ones up there.  Yippee!  We'd have choice of the good lines down the backside.  The four of us skied down one at a time, keeping an eye on each other.  We skied through the trees and cautiously through narrow open areas.  Very nice, fluffy snow.  I was pushing powder up to my thighs.  That causes uncontrollable grinning.  I tried taking a picture of Randy disappearing into the fluff but I missed him and only got the fluff.  Oh well…

By the time we got to the bottom of the run, we had skied about 1100'.  Now was the tough part — breaking trail back up.  That's the downside of having an entire run to ourselves: we have to break trail ourselves.  To say that it was deep, was an understatement.  We had to take turns frequently leading the way through knee-deep powder.  We decided to only go part way up the run then ski down, ski up all the way then ski back part way.  Good plan.

We skied back down about 500' or so.  Again, uncontrollable grins as we pushed fresh powder on a new line.  Then back up.  Our track had filled in but it wasn't as bad as breaking new trail.  Except when we got back to the spot we had stopped and skied back down.  Then we had to take turns again all the way back to the ridge.  By then the weather had moved in and we were setting off small avalanches.  None of them were serious enough to hurt us but it did limit our terrain options.  So we opted to ski down the front side the 1000' or so back to our cars.

The wind blew the snow sideways, temporarily blinding all of us.  We quickly decided on a line and paired up.  Randy lead the way, followed by me.  Then Sean and Mike came down, with Amico the wonder snow dog!  Occasional blizzards made seeing difficult but we found the road when Sean fell into it.  Amico immediately tried to push snow onto him but licked his nose instead.

The rest of the ski was sort of a luge down a trench down the main trail.  It went fast.  Down at the parking lot, cars were stuck because it had snowed so much.  My trusty Toyota wove around stuck cars and made it to the highway.  Only to be stuck in traffic for a very long time.  The pass was closed, at least eastbound.  Blizzards made visibility, um, less than optimal.  We coasted less than 1 mile per hour for a long time.  We were glad we decided to not make another lap on the ski slopes because it turned out that we were kind near the front of the line of cars.

After a very long time we passed the line of cars that had been stopped by the State Patrol from going eastbound over the pass.  After another very long time traffic started moving.  It had taken at least 2 hours to get to Monroe — twice as long as normal.  The rest of the drive went easily.

It was a fun ski, especially when we got to ski through the fresh powder but it was a lot of work coming back up.  Usually the uptrack isn't difficult after it's been set so we can often take several more laps.  But we had to break trail each time.  Still, skiing the fresh powder makes it worth it.  Here are the pictures.

The snow came for real last week.  Randy and I took Friday off to ski the lift area at Stevens Pass.  The day before we worried that it had stopped snowing too early in the day and that the runs would all be tracked out even early Friday morning.  No need to worry. Plus the sky was bright, sparkly blue.

We got to the lift area right when the lifts opened.  We took a couple warm up runs down the groomers then skied a double black diamond run from the top of the Seventh Heaven chair.  We were pleased to find that the snow was still quite soft even though the run had been skied the previous day.  After that run we found our friend Mark, with whom we often ski in the backcountry.

We spent the whole day skiing on and off piste, mostly off.  We skied the backside until the snow got too crunchy then skied the rest of the day on the front, still finding pockets of unskied powder off-piste, especially in the trees.  It was a glorious day.  We ended on tired legs.

On Saturday Randy decided he needed to work to catch up on a project so I opted to go back to Stevens Pass and ski the nordic area by myself.  I had borrowed some skinny skis from a friend and was anxious to try them out on a groomed track.  Unfortunately the weather was horrible.  The conditions were pleasant enough in the shelter of the trees but in the open the wind blew hard, it was snowing, my face was pelted with snow.  Ow.

I was just about to turn around and give up after about 3 km but I saw some intrepid biathlon racers coming my way with their heads down, pushing hard into the wind.  They were dressed in thin racing garb.  I can only imagine they were more miserable than I.  Somehow that thought was comforting and gave me determination to ski on.  Besides, I had nothing else planned for the day so I decided to ski on in the conditions I was given rather than face a largely boring day.

After the biathlon competitors turned off the main run to shoot at targets, I went on alone.  Snow drifts covered the track but it was clear where the trail went.  I pushed on and on until finally I was back in the shelter of the woods.  Better.  Much better.  At least the wind couldn't get me even if the snow was a little deep.

I popped out of the woods again and saw the chairlifts of the ski resort right in front of me.  Above me I heard whooping and hollering.  A few snowboarders came down the hill and had to boot-pack (i.e. walk) back up to the lifts.  It wasn't far.  I skied along until I reached the end of the trail, marked by a 7.5 km sign, which was just below the lifts.  Then I turned around and had a glorious tail wind pushing me back to the woods.

In the clearing about halfway back I came across another intrepid skier, determined to ski all the way to the end in spite of the snow pelting his bare face.  He tripped over a drift and fell to his knees but got up and skied on.  I barely had to work on the way back in the open because the wind pushed me so hard.  Then I came to the final stand of trees.  The wind died down so I had to work to finish.  It took half as much time to ski the final 7.5 km back than it did to get out there in the first place.

On Sunday we got up to snow in the front yard.  I thought the conditions were going to be as miserable as the previous day plus the avalanche danger would be high in the backcountry so we planned to stick to skiing in the trees rather than on open slopes that might be prone to avalanches.

Again, back up to Stevens Pass — this is probably the only weekend I've ever driven through Gold Bar six times.  We popped over the pass to find more bluebird skies.  Nice.  Plus we were the first new car in the parking area.  There were a bunch of vehicles covered in snow.  Obviously the drivers had camped somewhere out there.

Randy was full of energy so he broke trail through fresh snow.  The track from the previous day was obvious but it had filled in.  We skied up the road until the first switchback, where we cut through the forest to the upper section of road.  We skied that for a ways until we found the uptrack through the trees to near the top of the ridge.  Randy spotted the campers tents in the trees.  It probably had been a nice campout.

Eventually we saw the campers.  They were part of an avalanche safety course.  Apparently there were a few groups out there learning about avalanche safety.  While they went through the exercises of snow study, beacon searches, probing, and digging, we skied up and over the ridge.  There weren't any snowmobilers over on that side (unlike the previous weekend) but we decided the slope wasn't worth skiing given that we'd have to cut a track back up to the top.  So we opted to ski the treed slopes on the same side we had come up.  Our first run was the same run we did the previous weekend on our way out from Jove Peak.

The snow was pretty nice and it stayed put on the slope (which we expected because it was anchored by a forest).  We skied 4 laps — 700 feet down to the road then back up the skin track, repeat.  We thought about skiing it a 5th time but the skin track was getting too slippery — it was hard to stay upright on the steeper parts.  And the snow in the sun was getting crusty and heavy.  Our final run was quite steep and nearly in the open but well anchored on both sides.  The snow was still fluffy in the shade so I spent much of the run in there.  The final pitch was on a slope that had been logged several years earlier, which made the snow more exposed to the sun.  Turning was more difficult.  When we got to what had been the beginning of our uptrack we decided to call it a day and skied down all the way to the bottom.  At the end of the day we had skied nearly 4000' of vertical.  And this on my third day in a row of skiing.  I was pleased that my legs weren't entirely noodley, i.e. I still had enough in me to make the drive home.

The pictures are from the nordic area and the backcountry on Saturday and Sunday.

Yesterday I was supposed to ski in the backcountry at Mt. Baker with Randy, Richard, and Kevin.  Unfortunately at the parking lot I discovered that I had left my climbing skins at home.  So I got to ski inbounds all day while they enjoyed the backcountry.  At first I pouted but felt better when I met another backcountry skier who was also stuck skiing inbounds because he had left his beacon behind.  Misery loves company.  Anyway I made the most of it and had a good day.

Today went much better.  Randy and I met Mark at his house in Everett at 7:00 a.m.  We drove together to east of Stevens Pass to ski up Smith Brook Road, up and over the ridge, down into the valley then up Jove Peak.

The weather forecast was for rain but it turned out to be high overcast for most of the day, though sort of warm (for the mountains anyway).  The approach starts on the road for a mile or two then we cut off a switchback by skiing up through the forest.  Then more road and finally up a long-ish pitch to the ridge.  The other side of the ridge is open to snowmobiles and many had tracked up a very ski-able meadow.  Darn it!  We skied all the way to the bottom of the valley then started the long slog up Jove Peak.

Much of the uptrack is through the forest and open glades.  It's rather steep.  We got up to the ridgetop at 1:30 or 2:00 p.m.  The peak was still about a half hour or so away but we decided to turn around because it was windy on the ridge and the snow quality for our down track was poor.  Going up to the peak would mean skiing down in more crusty snow.

Below the ridge we dug a hasty pit (CT 13, QT 3) and found a couple buried layers.  The first was about 5 cm down, the more important one was about 15 cm deep.  We opted to ski across an open face one at a time then ski close to the trees.  Mark went first then me followed by Randy.  The snow was quite stable, which was good because it was tough to turn so I needed a fair amount of room to make turns.  Occasionally we'd get some good snow but only for a turn or two.

At mid-slope we found an outtrack that would take us closer to the top of the ridge that we needed to ski over to get out.  Down low the wind was calm so we took a quick break to eat some lunch.  It was a quick lunch because sitting on snow isn't comfortable for very long.

Randy lead us to the final pitch to the ridge where we were able to take off our climbing skins and ski down.  Our choices were either the road, the crusty snow we climbed up or take a chance and ski through the trees.  We opted for the trees and found the snow to be quite nice.  Until we got to the much shorter trees.  Then we were back in the crust and survival turns.  Finally we were back at the bottom and skied out the road back to the parking area.  It was a good day and here are the pictures.