But first a litany of excuses as to why I haven't posted. Quite honestly I haven't really done very many interesting things lately. I hurt my back in October, which slowed me down a lot. Ski season was a bust until about April, by which time I had had it with skiing in crud, ice, mashed potatoes. Yuck. Then I started taking a mountaineering class which took up a lot of fun time. Then I developed another problem that finally seems to be resolving itself. And spring seems to be here finally. Oh and my camera went kaput. I find blog posts less interesting without pictures. That's my list of excuses.
Earlier in the week my friend L and I hatched a plan to ski somewhere to take advantage of the latest spring powder dump. Usually by this time of year avalanche danger isn't much of an issue but with the latest spring snows it was an issue so we had to choose our ski destination carefully. The North Cascades Pass is open, which has a short spring season, and you can ski from the parking lot since the elevation is quite high.
We decided on the Cutthroat Pass area because we felt like it would be safe(r) due to lower angle slopes, northfacing bowls which are less prone to sun effects, and lots of treed areas to explore if the open slopes were sketchy, especially with the size of overhanging cornices.
We to the parking area, wondered if we had driven too far because the pass is actually about 5400' and where we were parked was about 4000', which meant the snow would be mushier. Still we would be climbing higher and wouldn't have to compete for ski lines with the crowds that were skiing the Birthday Tour. Plus I felt good about our decision given the potential avalanche danger.
The approach was about a mile ski on a road to the actual trailhead. From there we cut west through the trees up toward a feature known as "First Bowl". L had skied there with a guide earlier in the year and thought it would be a good place to go. The snow in the trees was quite hard so I put on ski crampons, which made it significantly easier. Above treeline the snow got much softer and deeper too. Promising!
A small group of guys were ahead of us so by the time we had reached the bottom of the open slopes they were on their way down. The lines looked lovely, the snow even better. Yahoo! The guy in front told us that "conditions were deteriorating rapidly". Yeah right! Nice try!
The overhanging cornices were a little worrisome but nothing seemed to be moving at that point. So we continued up the skin track to a nice bench that seemed reasonably far away from the cornices. The first ski down is always a bit awkward, especially for me since I'm still learning to ski. But it was great fun and we decided to skin back up for another lap. The guys in the meantime skinned up to the ridge, found a place to cross over that didn't have any cornices and went on to ski "Second Bowl".
The second ski down went better as I felt a little warmed up. L commented that I make skiing harder than it needs to be. I do, of course, but I don't know how to ski any differently at this point. At the bottom of our run we sat and ate a little lunch then tackled the difficult tree skiing. By this time the snow had softened considerably, which made it easier but there were still tight trees, tree wells and sketchy slopes to negotiate. It took quite a while to get down but L is a good skier and I'm a good problem solver so we picked our lines, stayed in voice contact and reached the road. The road was an easy ski out with a little poling but mostly just a long slide out.
By the time we got to the parking area, the party of guys was already back and enjoying a refreshing adult beverage before packing up and heading away. We asked about their ski up and over to Second Bowl. Enjoyable, same as First Bowl, with a long negotiation through the trees.
It was a great time with a good friend who loves adventure. And it was a beautiful day. We had worried about the weather forecast, which predicted T-storms, and briefly debated going to Mt. Baker instead since it was so nice on the west side. Fortunately the T-storms never developed on the east side and later I found out that Mt. Baker was in the clouds all day. We made a great choice and I had the best ski of the season since last November!
When do we get to see pictures with the new camera?