Month: May 2012

It was a sunny day, rare on Memorial Day Weekend, so I went for a hike.  The high country is still well under snow.  In fact, any terrain above 2500' is pretty much still under snow.  Lake 22 is right around 2500' and the last part of the trail plus the lake was under snow.  That was apparently a surprise to many of the hikers who came up in hiking sandals, running shoes, fishing poles.  One fellow planned to run up the trail in shorts and shoes until he saw me emerge from the woods in long pants and long sleeves.  He asked if it was cold up at the lake.  Yes, as it is still covered in snow.  He grabbed a shirt before jogging on.

The waterfalls were named "Wow Fow's" early on by a hikers young daughter who was impressed with the volume and quantity.  The falls are strong this time of year with all the snow melt.  Here are the pictures.

Stats: Beverly Creek Trailhead (Teanaway River Road) 3600' Iron Peak 6500'  Total Elevation Gain depends on how many laps you ski.  We skied two laps for between 3500' and (generous) 4000'.  Roundtrip mileage ~7-8. At least a mile or more was on either dry ground or hard, unfun snow (for skiing).  Aspects skied were generally north.  Pitch was WooHoo Steep!

We did not take avy gear since the snowpack had mostly settled; however, we were surprised to see heavy cornices still on the ridgetops.  There also had been a recent avalanche on one of the slopes.  We assumed there was still a sliding layer on that aspect.

Fun Factor: The excellent corn snow was worth getting out of bed at 0420 and on the road by 0500.  Not sure what time we started but we were back at the car by 1500.  We finished the first lap right around noon.  At the end of the second lap we noticed the snow getting mushy and grabby.

Gear: Skis, skins, ski crampons (optional), ski pole whippet, sunscreen

Here are the pictures!

Lake Serene is a relatively low-elevation lake that sits at 2500' at the base of scenic Mt. Index.  Bridal Veils falls flows from the north end of the lake.  Since yesterday was sunny and the snow was reportedly melted off most of the trail I was hardly alone on the trail for more than a couple minutes at a time.  The parking lot was nearly full when I arrived at 9:30 and overflowing down the road and into a lower lot when I returned at 1:30.  It was a beautiful day and a good way to get myself and Jodee some exercise.

The stats:  Beginning elevatation is 600', ending is 2500'.  RT mileage is 7.2, added 1 mile bonus plus a little more elevation if you take the side trip to Bridal Veil Falls.  The falls are gorgeous and the side trip is worth the effort but the main trail passes right by the falls.  I'm glad I made the side trip.

When I returned there had been a serious accident further east on Hwy 2, which is not uncommon.  This highway is nicknamed The Death Highway for good reason.  In the future, if I'm short on time, as I was yesterday, I won't hike Hwy 2 because planning for traffic jams is essential on weekends.  That's just an FYI.

Here are the pictures.  Also, kudos to the Washington Trail Association and Boeing Alpine Club for all their hard work on the trail yesterday!

Initially our plan was go on a multi-day ski tour in the Oval Peak region, which is over the North Cascades Highway, past Mazama and Winthrop, beyond Twisp and up a dirt road into the Sawtooth-Chelan mountains.  We cooked up this plan early in the year, gambling that the pass would be open and conditions would favor driving to the trailhead and the nice spring snow referred to as "corn" would be the ski conditions.

However, as planning goes we were a week off from the pass opening, the Forest Service website indicated that there would be several miles of skiing on the road before we even reached the trailhead and the high temperature of the first two days would only be 31F.  Not exactly the spring ski trip we had envisioned.

Fortunately we are a flexible bunch.  Billy, whom we had not yet met, reserved a condo in the little town of Glacier, the last town before Mt. Baker.  Aimee, a friend from our mid-week downhill ski group, who is the connection with Billy was in on the Oval Peak plan from the get-go, loosely introduced us to Billy via the magic of email.  It was going to work and we were going to have a nice weekend in spite of the weather forecast.

And we did.  We all arrived at the condo Friday night at different times.  Randy and I left work early on Friday, got up to Glacier early enough to have a nice dinner at Milano's then explore Glacier Creek Road to see how far the snow had melted.  We found out that there were still several miles of road to ski before reaching the trailhead to Heliotrope.

For Saturday we got up at a liesurely 7:30, drank coffee, had a nice breakfast of egg, ham, and cheese filled tortillas and homemade rhubarb pie for dessert.  We got to the Mt. Baker ski area, which is now closed for the season, to weather not unlike the previous week.  However it wasn't quite raining real rain drops.  The weather looked like it wanted to clear toward Herman Saddle and there was fresh snow up higher, possibly in Mazama Bowl.

We skinned up to Austin Pass, just like the last week.  Saw the Skagit Alpine Club practicing ice axe arrest on a steep slope.  We skied down into Bagley Lakes in fairly consolidated snow that was difficult for making turns.  Again the snow was deep enough to cross Bagley Lakes and the creek upstream but it won't be for long.

We skinned up to Herman Saddle, decided not to go into Mazama Bowl because we thought the recent snowfall was just too warm to be worth the effort.  We thought about skiing around Table Mountain but the skiing down was as difficult as skiing up so we thought it would take too long to complete the circuit.  So we skied down and out.  Nice warm up day with possibly bigger ambitions for Sunday and Monday.  Here are the pictures.

Once we got back to the condo, Aimee and went directly to the hot tub while Randy and Billy went to Maple Falls for a pre-dinner snack and to pick up the second key to the condo.  They joined us in the hot tub after Aimee and I were positively pruney.

Aimee and Billy cooked a nice dinner of pasta and prawns and scallops.  Yum!  We also found out that in spite of the cloud cover during the day, sunscreen was necessary.  Even those of us who had applied in advance were a little more tan.  Billy sported some red spots on his face.

Billy and Aimee know some folks in Glacier who own the ski shop so he was able to get some directions to a secret stash of good skiing that I will only refer to as "Secret Mountain" here.

On Sunday we didn't get up much earlier, still had a leisurely breakfast and coffee before we got going.  Sunday was a beautiful day with bright sunshine and bluebird skies.  We took lots of pictures of the incredible views.

I will say that the skiing was nicer on Secret Mountain.  It wasn't quite corn but perhaps "creamed corn" consistency.  The sun had warmed the slope so whenever we skied, the top layer followed us down.  I didn't like that feeling so much so Aimee and I only skied one lap.  The slide wasn't fast enough or deep enough to cause injury but it could knock a skier over, especially a skier like me.  Fortunately even I skied fast enough to outrun the slide down to a safe zone.  Randy skied another lap and Billy skied two more laps.  We made a serious mess out of that slope with the slides and tracks.  It may not be skiable for the rest of the season so it's not worth trying to find.  I'm just sayin'!  Here are the glorious pictures!

It was raining when we got up and raining when we met Mark at the Park n Ride and raining when we got to the parking lot at Mt. Baker.  So why did we ski?  We all wanted some exercise and Randy had had his ski boots stretched previously in the week so wanted to try them out on a tour before we set off on an overnight adventure.

The rain wasn't bad when we got out of the car and it was warm.  By the time we started up the hill to Austin Pass it was dry enough to shed outer rain gear.  By the time we got into Swift Creek it was downright sunny and time to apply sunscreen.

Snow still covered the creek well enough to safely ski over the water but a few holes were showing through.  There was evidence of a recent avalanche cycle but nothing else at our elevation was coming down.  We could hear massive avalanches coming down the flanks of Shuksan as we approached the saddle dividing Swift Creek and Lake Ann but nothing was coming our way.

With all the avalanche debris and cornices lining our route we doubted that our objective was possible but we kept going, picking our way to safe lines and checking in with each other to make sure we were all okay with the route.  We weren't sure how we were going to navigate the cornices to get over the saddle to Lake Ann but we found a nifty little notch between cornices and snuck through.  From there we skinned up the ridge well on the safe side of the cornice line.

By the time we got to the top the clouds came in and started snowing.  We hunkered under a tree, ate a quick lunch and pondered skiing down to the lake before skiing back up to the notch and skiing out.  We decided that the snow quality (7-11 slush quality) wasn't worth the trouble so we skied back down the notch and into Swift Creek.  By then the sky cleared and we took off jackets again.

It felt like a long slog back out of Swift Creek but generally the weather was nice until we started the serious climb out of Swift Creek back up to Austin Pass.  To add insult to the uphill climb the rain began in earnest.  At the top of the Pass we ripped skins off our skis and skied the slush down to the parking lot where a serious downpour got us.  Boots and skis and wet jackets came off quickly and into the car we piled.  Off to warm food and refreshing beverages!

The tour was fun in spite of our misgivings the entire way out there and we'd gladly do it again.  Randy's boots passed the test and we got in a fair amount of exercise.  Conservatively the elevation gain was 3500' in approximately 8 1/2 miles roundtrip.  We saw terrain we hadn't seen before and would like to explore more.  It was a day to get both sunburned and drenched. Here are the pictures.