Month: February 2012

Right after the avalanche field trip weekend I offered to lead a ski tour to a group of people who were interested in learning where to ski on a high(er) avalanche hazard day.  Fortunately on Sunday January 15 there was plenty of fresh snow and the avalanche hazard was rated as "Considerable", which means that skier-triggered avalanches are likely in certain terrain.

Our mission was to explore terrain that would be safe to ski even with that kind of rating.  Five of us met at a park n ride in Marysville then caravanned to Smithbrook, on the east side of Stevens Pass.  We were expecting a snowy, low visibility day.

And got a bluebird day.  We are taking turns breaking trail through deep snow.  Brian is in front of me.  Miyabi, Emily, and Jessica (not necessarily in that order) are in front of him.

Here is the marvelous work we've done as a team.

Miyabi, Brian at Rainy Pass.  Lunch stop!

Whee!  We skied down through the trees on relatively steep terrain through this lovely, thigh-deep powder.  What a fun day with a fun group!

Yes, I'm behind on posting my adventures.

We rung in the New Year by skiing a route we had tried several years ago but came up short of our goal.  The route starts at Smithbrook Road east of Stevens Pass.  Ski up the road to the 2nd switchback, find the summer trail west and ski up to about 4500' elevation then contour along that elevation for a long long way to the ridge overlooking Lake Valhalla.

Last time we tried skiing the valley floor to the saddle separating Lake Valhalla from the Smithbrook side but found too many boulders, open holes, and creeks to get very far.

On January 1 skiing laps in the trees would've been fun but we were on a mission.  Trail breaking was tough since there was a lot of new snow but we took turns when the hip flexors started screaming.  I didn't take many pictures because we were busy with the trail breaking and the terrain wasn't that scenic since we were skiing at cloud level. However, arriving at our destination felt worthy of celebration.  And we spotted some fun-looking terrain on the other side of Lake Valhalla.  Celebration was short — eat a bite standing up, out of the wind in the shelter of trees.  Then sking out.  We needed to be out before dark and light is scarce on Jan 1.

We backtracked on our trail and weren't surprised that no other skiers had followed us.  Skiers tend to stick to known terrain and we enjoy going to the unknown instead of skiing the same terrain all the time.  We got out just at dusk before headlamps were necessary.

Here are a couple pictures:

Lake Valhalla is through those trees down the other side.  Hard to tell – not a vitamin D productive day.

A ski-able slope on the other side of Lake Valhalla.