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.

BC powder turns

I don't even know the name of this run, but Aaron knew about it from previous snomobile trips out of Salmon la Sac. We headed past the van Epps turnoff on the road and stopped near the top. We skinned up about 1000' to the top, and got three great runs in. Aaron provided the eye-candy I was camera boy. The third shot here is looking down the first chute from the top of the ridge.

This last one is looking North (or NE) up the valley.

Cabin Run pics

Here's the less steep line in the middle of the run.

Here's the view of Cathedral Rock, and you can see Mt. Daniel in the background.

This is the skin track up through the woods.