Norse Peak - First tour of the season

The early November storms lined up nicely in Washington, just as expected in this La Nina season. There were 8 of us in for Satrurday, planning to head to Paradise on Mt. Rainier. After driving part way there, we found out the road would not open (thanks to the NPS for their Twitter feed!). We headed to Crystal and set up out up Norse peak. It was about 30 degrees in the parking lot and a few inches of fresh snow on the ground. We skinned up the standard trail and exited near the top for East Peak. There were rocks exposed on the ridge line (due to the prevailing westerly winds), but once we dropped in it was nothing but powder. With only 30 inches of snow it was pretty well anchored to the terrain and we didn't see any wind slabs.

After this first run, we skinned back up and followed the ridgeline to the peak to the south. We dropped of the back (toward the East), and had a great 800 foot run to the basin. This east-facing slope was very filled in - powder up to our knees. By this time it was snowing heavily. We skinned up to the top and took another run down the back, by this time it was above your knees - epic conditions. One more skin to the top of East Peak then we went down about 1500' back to the track out. This last run could not be beat - face shots all the way down, no slide activity and snowing hard. Incredible season opener.

Travel Trials

Overall I appreciate the ease with which we travel the world, but it can be trying at times. Case in point: As if a 24 hour trek from Chennai to Seattle wasn't daunting enough, try this on for size. I get to the airport in Chennai at 11:30 PM for my 1:45 AM flight to Frankfurt. At about 12:30 we learn there's a plane stuck on the runway, that caused our plan to be diverted to Bangalore. 3 hour delay (that's 4:45 AM) to depart - and at this point I know I'll miss my connection in Frankfurt. Assurances by the crew that we'll be rebooked on the earliest possible flight held true for many passengers, but my requests for information about my situation were met with "you'll be rebooked". After waiting for 1/2 hour at the first travel desk, I'm told they actually can't help me (would have been great to know), so they sent me to the next desk 15 minutes away. Oops, it's now too late to catch the next flight to London that would have got me home at 3:15, a mere 4 hours later than planned. So here I sit in Frankfurt waiting for my flight to Toronto, then a 2 hour layover, then another 5 hours to Seattle. If all goes well I should be home by 8:30 PM, making my 24 hour flight a total of 35 hours. We'll miss the party we were eagerly awaiting, I miss a day with my wife and daughter, and I'm in the midst of extreme frustration at the moment, in case that wasn't obvious.

This is all just payback for how smooth the trip was on the way over - the on-time departure, the nice drive from Frankfurt to Luxembourg and back, the time with Nigel, Chuck and Ross in Lux (who I hadn't seen for over 2 years) and the great weather.

Da Gulch + Black Bear

One key piece of data all Seattleites should know is that just over the mountains there lurks a drier, sunnier land. That proved true yesterday when Konrad and I left the rain and drove over to Cashmere for a September gulch ride. Sunny and 70 when we started, and greeted by a black bear cub on the road not 2 minutes from commencing the ride! After a good look for momma bear, we continued on.

We rode up the trail and gave kudos to the Evergreen team for doing some fantastic trail work - widening the trail where needed on the steep slopes of Devil's Gulch.

We only rode up to the intersection with the Mission Creek trail as it was getting cold and there were heavy clouds hanging out. Back down then up the Red Devil for a fantastic finish. Down below 4000' it was warm and sunny again. Good way to wrap up the Eastern Wa rides - I don't hold out hope that I can squeeze in another this year!

Starvation Mountain - North Cascades

This used to be one of the better mountain bike rides in the state. While it still has great views during the 4000' of climbing, much of the smooth downhill is gone. A forest fire swept through the area in about 2006 and the upper section of Blue Buck is now exposed to the elements. The result has turned a smooth and fast trail into a sandy mess, and where high speeds are no longer possible. The second half of Blue Buck is unchanged, still a skinny trail on a steep hillside, and a good challenge.

On this day I ran into several black angus cows on the Cathedral Stock Driveway, and a few friendly bluegrouse hunters.

Overall I would suggest Lightning Creek as the better quality dowhill in the area.

July Adventures

July started with a bang on the weekend of the fourth when Ian, Dan, Kendall and I headed down to White Salmon (right across from Hood River). We camped the first night in the tent Ian's friend has set up in their yard for the kids - not the most secluded camping but it sure was easy! Saturday dawned hot and sunny and the four of us went for a great mountain bike ride in right from town. A huge climb up, then down to the river, then back up on an exposed ridge, then a great downhill to finish. 5000' of climbing and we were worked! That was just the warm up for day 2...

We left that evening for Mt. Adams, and because of all the snow we had to park 3 miles from the trailhead at Cold Springs. Aaron and John rolled in at about 1AM (thankfully I was asleep in my tent) and we got up at 5 for the slog to the top. We skinned all the way from Cold Springs to the summit, topping out late at about 4pm. Then Aaron and I decided to try the Avalanche Glacier route down, which we had done twice before in years past. After skiing through the notch between the summit and the northern peak, we found the whole glacier had moved down the mountain, opening up a huge crevasse right in our path. We turned and skinned out of there with our tails between our legs. I'm eternally grateful to Aaron and his good judgment as I was thinking "it looks pretty filled in over on the right" - could have been a disastrous choice. It's all the worse because you can see the crevasse from down below and we had thought it was a crown of an old avalanche. Anyway, we skinned back to the summit and skiied right back to cold springs down the south approach. Our buddies skied the Avalanche Chutes and had a good run.

Sunday night Kendall and I camped at a remote site where we were the only ones there. He in the back of his truck and me in the tent. At 3am I awoke to somehing tromping through the woods toward the campsite. "Of course it's a bear" I was thinking as my heart pounded. The thing walked right past my tent and off into the woods. Just as I started to calm down I heard it coming back! I felt like a chewy treat inside a thin wrapper and I had had enough! I yelled for Kendall to shine a light, which he did after a few panicked requests for him to wake up. We never did see what it was, but I'm comforted to know I escaped death on that occasion.

Monday we capped off the weekend with a great ride at Post Canyon on the Oregon side of the river. They have miles of singletrack and have built out some easy t0 medium features like log bridges, drops and ramps. What a blast!

Van Epps in April!

Check out the size of that cornice! It had grown 10X since we were there in January.

The cold just keeps hanging around the northwest this spring, so much better for the backcountry touring. Kendall, Aaron and I headed out for Van Epps on April 16 after a few snafus getting prepared (let's see... two trips back to the cabin from the parking log - one for forgotten boots and another to pick up the spare snowmobile as the primary had a mechanical).

They stopped grooming the snowmo trail in March, so the road is now a continuous series of waves - imagine riding a bucking bronco for 30 minutes. Then there was the snomo challenge, where we had to go off into the woods in a spot where the road was blocked by an avalanche. A few issues getting stuck but we made it in good time.

Once out to Van Epps though, the touring was fine - a few inches of dust on a firm crust. The skiiing - not so good. Very firm under the crust. One lap on

All in all a good exercise day, looking forward to a few more before the snow melts.

Norse Peak, Sat Feb 19 2011

Oh baby! After a foot+ of fresh fell in the east slopes Monday and Tuesday this week, the temperatures stayed cold and gave the snow a chance to settle. Loern and I headed to the Crystal lot Saturday morning and were skinning up Norse by 9:30. After a bit of bushwacking at the beginning (seems standard for Norse) we hooked up with the skin track made earlier in the week and followed that all the way to the top.

Because the snow had come in with high south-westerly winds, the N and NE slopes were a bit windloaded, although people had skiied the east-facing Cement Basin earlier in the week and there was no visible slide activity. The ridge tops were pretty scoured, but in the trees and the shallow valleys the snow was deep and unconsolidated.

The day was absolutely perfect. About 20 degrees and very little wind. It had blown up to 50mph the night before but once the sun came out it really calmed down. The views were incredible with Rainier, Adams and the entire Cascade range out in full glory.

Bottomless powder was our reward for the climb - the top 1000' was superb, then below that the sun started affecting the snow.

Crystal Mountain

Crystal delivered today with bluebird skies and 6" of new snow. By the time I got my lazy ass up there it was 11:30, but I was welcomed by full sun and short lift lines. I went and hiked the King and had a good run down the north side, kind of a dust-on-crust experience. It became a little more filled in further down and was very nice.

Then I did one off the south side - not as good. The sun had affected it and it was pretty chunky.

Another on the north side, then Green Valley and Exterminator to finish the (short) day. Glorious!

This is Silver King from the Forest Queen chair. It only takes about 30 minutes to get there from the top of Campbell Basin.

When will the pineapple end?

After temperatures near zero New Year's weekend, we've had three straight weeks of warm weather and rain in the mountains. Today I dropped Ava for her ski lesson at Summit West in the rain, then drove over to Alpental to check out the conditions there. Luckily it was snowing at the top of Debbie's Gold, about 4300 feet. Then up chair 2 where it was snowing hard, although a bit heavy. No lift lines though so I got a bunch of runs in and thoroughly enjoyed it.

It's supposed to cool off a bit tomorrow but then the snow shuts off for the next several days. My optimism for Feb and March are still in tact, but man, we need some cold weather!

Whistler

While the recent pineapple express delivered warm weather and rain to all the ski areas in Washington, I was excited to see Whistler was still getting snow at the top. We planned a last-minute trip and were not disappointed. I started out Saturday morning simply hoping for the best; the tops of both mountains had been closed the day before. As I exited the top of the Excelerator chair at Blackcomb they opened the Glacier Express chair - for the first time in two days. A few great runs there and then they opened Spanky's Ladder, which allows you to access my favorite run - Ruby Bowl. Ruby was in fine shape so I hit that for the rest of the morning. I spent the afternoon skiing with the family and enjoying the fabulous Westin.

Sunday was not as good- with rain at times nearly to the top of the mountain. We made the most of it though and skied a full day under mostly cloudy skies and wind. All in all we salvaged what would have been a very boring weekend in Seattle.