Jove Peak

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.