tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-24651029070829014492024-03-07T22:00:55.988-08:00Becky + PetePete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.comBlogger131125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-47163389003060331972019-02-03T15:04:00.000-08:002019-02-10T15:07:43.818-08:00JAPOW!!! Two weeks of backcountry skiing in Hokkaido, Japan<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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This was was a bucket-list trip....and one of those Becky and I needed to do before our legs, backs, knees, lungs, etc couldn't handle two weeks of backcountry skiing. For years we'd heard the stories and seen the pictures of the amazing powder that piles up on Hokkaido's mountains, and after a year of trip logistics, pestering friends for route info, scribbling route lines all over Google Earth, we were off to Japan with our ski buddies Andy and Mica.<br />
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We thought about checking out multiple destinations, or renting an RV, but in the end I think we were pretty happy to have had our first trip to Hokkaido based out of the Niseko area. We were able to cycle through hitting about four different major areas, each with plenty of different tours to hit. Our first day we picked a popular spot and were a little dismayed by the hordes of backcountry skiers all vying for same little slice of untracked powder....but we got into our groove and by the end of the trip we were touring all day and not seeing ANYONE :) :) :) ...and that was awesome.<br />
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We had pretty stormy weather the whole time, but got a couple calm days, which allowed us to get up high on a couple of peaks including a summit of Mt.Yotei.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/ihsVb57BTbbwy1yc9" target="_blank">linky to photo album</a><br />
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a little video of the skiing :)<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-23873967930686651672018-09-18T11:08:00.000-07:002018-09-18T11:08:53.090-07:00annual end of the summer backpacking trip<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Becky and I have been wanting to visit Glacier National Park for years, but given its popularity we weren't willing to drive out there at the spur of the moment to put a backpacking trip together...so we put in all our reservations early this spring to get the exact itinerary we wanted...now all we had to do was cross our fingers that the park didn't start burning like it did in 2017. Sad trombone...as our departure date neared, west side access was closed due to a big fire and some of our trails were shut down due to grizzly bear activity...so a trip to Glacier was going to be thoroughly compromised. Time to find another destination.<div>
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The Sierras have never let us down, but a spur of the moment trip to California was going to be a little tricky as the most popular trailheads already had their quotas booked solid for months and we didn't want to head down there with our fingers crossed we could get a walk-up permit the day we wanted to start. We still managed to get a reservation and piece together a wacky little loop trip zig zagging some areas we'd seen on the John Muir Trail and Sierra High Route trips years ago but we'd also get to see a lot of new terrain.</div>
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The trip reinforced just how easy it is to find solitude in the oh so popular Sierras. The few times we were on trails, particularly the Pacific Crest Trail, we'd see people about every ten minutes, but once we headed into cross country terrain, we'd go all day without seeing anyone. </div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-38300374392920682722018-02-25T15:59:00.000-08:002018-02-25T15:59:31.707-08:00February skiing...back to our usual stormy storminess<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Yodelin last weekend - lots of snow, even more wind...helmets were handy for the amount of snow falling out of the trees. The skiing was okay, the trailbreaking was quite the workout.<br />
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Becky and I got up to Snoqualmie on the 23rd, ahead of the weekend crowds and storms. Toured around Guye Peak, took a peak at some steeper terrain we look forward to hitting later this season once our crazy snowpack settles down a bit.<br />
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With Becky off to work for the weekend, I was chasing Chris and his buddy Nathan around the Stevens Pass trees on Saturday. Great conditions...pretty easy trailbeaking, scattered flurries and sun, and cold fluffy snow all day.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-69429376030731794792018-01-02T20:50:00.000-08:002018-01-02T20:50:33.818-08:00New Years ski trip - Mt.Rainier<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Becky and I had a few days off over the New Years weekend - unfortunately the weather immediately preceding our days off wasn't very kind to the snowpack.<br />
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We joined some friends for a short ski tour on Saturday at Snoqualmie Pass - it was snowing...barely... another few hundred feet lower and we would've been in rain. The snow was a deep, funky mixture of rain saturated stuff lower down, topped with a breakable refreezing crust from the rain event the night before with a few inches of new snow on top. The skiing was ugly, and we threw in the towel after just about 1,000ft of climbing... time to head home, dry out the gear, and hit the reset button for the rest of the weekend.<br />
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Sunday and Monday had sunny weather in the forecast but we figured anything low elevation would have the same breakable crust we encountered...so we opted to take our chances going high - it was off to Rainier to goof around.<br />
With the winter gate to Paradise opening at 9am and closing at 5pm, doing a day trip to Rainier is rarely at the top of our to-do list...it always feels a little rushed....so we brought the camping gear, and stayed for two days.<br />
Sunny days are usually shared with a ton of other skiers when sticking to the usual Paradise to Camp Muir route...but we're rather fond of scooting further around to the east to setting up camp near Cowlitz Rocks where we can find a variety of slopes and generally have the place to ourselves.<br />
We only ran into three other day-tripping skiers out there Sunday and enjoyed a lovely sunset and moonrise. As usual, the long nights this time of year meant we hit the sack at about 6:30pm and slept for 14 hours...yup.... 14 hours.<br />
Sunday was sunny, warmer, and had some legitimately good skiing from 9,500ft back down to our camp at 6,800ft. After a nice long run on the Paradise glacier, we packed up our gear and slid for the parking lot.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/KMikgdIAeieJo4gH3" target="_blank">link to photo album</a><br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-88668862166980770662017-12-23T22:16:00.000-08:002017-12-24T22:26:37.547-08:00Snoqualmie Pass touring<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/diUr1c3HDi2dfp982" target="_blank">link to more photos</a><br />
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Andy, Becky, and I found sunshine, stable powder, and ample solitude out on a nice rambly tour at Snoqualmie Pass. Racked up about 5500vf of mostly great, shallow powdery turns and really didn't see too many folks until everyone was on the shuffle back across Snow Lake.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-22523239800124376872017-10-01T18:37:00.000-07:002017-12-04T08:38:13.015-08:00Chelan-Sawtooth Wilderness, Star Pk & Courtney Pk<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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For years, our traditional fall trip was to hike through the Enchantments to gawk at the larches as they turn neon yellow for a couple weeks. The last time we visited the Enchantments though, we were a bit turned off by the crowds, the hikers listening to music out loud on their smartphones, the steady stream of trail-runners wanting to blast by us...the Enchantments are just a bit over-loved. So, it was time to try somewhere new.<br />
Fortunately the east side of the North Cascades has many more larches than those in the Enchantments, and if you're willing to get off the beaten path a bit, you can find some uncrowded, no-permits necessary larchy lands. It was pretty chilly with the new snow and all, but we still got in climbs of Courtney and Star Pks while we were out there.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/ychYOHWiCmRhcLzi2" target="_blank">Linky to the photo albums</a><br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-62497452421671091892017-07-28T18:37:00.000-07:002017-12-04T08:38:25.389-08:00Lyman Glacier, Chiwawa Mtn<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Becky and I were home for approximately 24 hours from the Pasayten Wilderness when we realized that with our remaining three days of summer break, we could squeak in another short trip...and revisit our old nemesis, Chiwawa. We'd tried twice, from two different routes and been skunked...but this time we came with way more technical gear than we'd likely need in order to cruise the glacier no matter how icy conditions were.<br />
Turns out the glacier was in fantastic shape...no ice screw or rope needed at all... a super fun climb and fantastic views. Nice way to wrap up our two week break.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/en1EMcUkiA1rVMG63" target="_blank">Linky to the photo albums</a><br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-85268012125403824262017-07-15T18:35:00.000-07:002017-12-04T08:38:31.515-08:00Summer break - two weeks in the North Cascades<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Becky and I had the last two weeks of July off to get in some quality time in the North Cascades.<br />
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Trip #1 was the 'Devils Dome Loop' - a fun three-day jaunt around Jack and Crater Mountains. Lots of wildflowers, the use of a motorboat shuttle to cut off a day of shoreline hiking, and perfect weather!<br />
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After we wrapped that up, it was east to the Methow Valley for a couple days of lazy hotel time at the Freestone Inn. Acting like adults and sorting our gear while enjoying a swimming pool and hotel happy hour was pretty nice.<br />
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Trip #2 was north of Winthrop, up into the Pasayten Wilderness. We did a loop out of the Chewech River/ThirtyMile Trailhead...climbing Remmel, Amphitheater, and Apex Mtns along the way. Sadly, the clouds and thundery weather we had while staying at the Freestone ended up being the storm that sparked the Pasayten fires that raged the rest of the summer out there- we were lucky to get in the trip we did before the mountains blew up.<br />
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/mSfJumNLkHELG5u53" target="_blank">Linky to the rest of the photos</a><br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-30315131454505995562017-05-26T18:07:00.000-07:002017-12-04T08:38:37.761-08:00Mt.Hood circumnavigation & Wy'East Face<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Why do in one day what you can do in three?<o:p></o:p></div>
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From what Becky and I had read, it seems like most
everyone knocks out a Mt. Hood circumnavigation in a single day, but we decided
to spend a couple nights out so we could be leisurely and have time for a ski
of the Wy'east face on our last day. We figured a late morning start on day 1
would allow us to ski the west and north aspects later in the day and get
softer snow, then after camping we could catch the east side of the mountain in
the morning sun.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We skinned out of Timberline and hit Illumination Saddle
around noon. Coverage and snow conditions on the Reid Glacier were great. Only
had a couple crevasses starting to open up as we scooted through between Yocum
Ridge and the glacier at around 8000ft then made a descending traverse to the
broad lower Yocum Ridge at about 7500ft.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">
</span>We had a short walk on dirt/scree over to the Sandy Glacier where we
tried to hold a contour.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>We
might<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>ve been a little low
on this next section as we had to skin and boot back up a bit to get onto the
Ladd Glacier.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>From there
it was a smooth shuffle across the Ladd and Coe glaciers.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>A short, mostly snow bootpack
got us to the Snowdome/Langille Glacier side of the mountain where we found a
recently abandoned campsite so we made use of their snow platform and settled
in for the rest of the day.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>Not
sure how easy it is to access the NW side of Hood, but wow there is some fun
looking terrain around the Ladd and Glisan glaciers area, wish we would<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>ve had more time to spend over
there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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The next morning we opted to get in a nice mellow ski
down the Elliot to about 7000ft where we were able to squeak in a descending
traverse onto Cooper Spur.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>The
skin back up the spur to 9000ft was punctuated with many breaks to watch the
hardier souls climbing up and skiing down the Cooper Spur route.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span> From 9000ft we were able to rip skins and
slide quickly around the east side of the mountain all the way to the base of
the Wy<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>east route. Only
had to scoot around a couple opening crevasses on the Newton Clark, the
coverage is just really, really good on Hood right now. It was only lunchtime
but we<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>d already arrived
at our next camp. Since the snow was well-cooked we spent a lazy afternoon
reading and playing cards.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Around dinnertime we had a surprising gear malfunction,
the two partially filled smaller cartridges we had been using with our jetboil
ran dry so we moved on to using a new canister. Either the threads on our
jetboil stove are damaged or the new canister was defective but we couldn<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>t get the fuel threaded on to
the stove it just spun and spun and then popped off. Fortunately it was warm
enough that a trash bag solar still and nalgenes filled with snow on warm rocks
provided ample water we just had to suffer through eating a dinner of cold
ramen noodles<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">, </span>bleck.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Sunday morning we were up at 5:30, and on the move by
6:30, we left the camping gear behind and with light packs cramponed up the Wy<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>east face, we were
circumnavigating the mountain, but we needed some good fall-line turns too.
Corn-o-clock came fast and by the time we hit the top of the face at 9 the
slope was ready to ski.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>Although
the face is currently marred with quite a bit of debris (looks like a skier
triggered sluff run amok from days earlier) there was still ample smooth corn
available. <o:p></o:p></div>
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We were back at camp in no time and after grabbing our
tent we started down the White River glacier.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">
</span>We should<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;">’</span>ve put
the skins on and regained the south side up high but we figured we could use
one of the several old ski tracks we saw that contoured west out of the valley
lower down.<span style="font-family: "tahoma" , sans-serif;"> </span>The eastern
exposure mixed with the hot temps made the traverse out of the White River
canyon pretty unpleasant, but we eventually popped up and over and had the home
stretch down to the car.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Given the dirty snow and soon to be patchy coverage
between Wy'east and Timberline - climbing out of Mt.Hood Meadows is definitely
the way to go right now for a better fall-line ski to your car.<o:p></o:p></div>
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After our ghetto cold ramen dinner, we were happy to stroll
up the parking lot and fill our bellies at the all-you-can-eat lunch buffet at
Timberline Lodge<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/uHTFEvW251QMD3Bt6" target="_blank">Linky to photo album</a></div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-7241648005259927012017-03-26T17:57:00.000-07:002017-12-04T08:38:59.553-08:00Sierras Spring Break<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Spring Break in the Sierras-<br />
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Becky and I have done a couple longish backpacking trips in
the Sierras, the John Muir Trail and the northern half of the Sierra High
Route, but we’d never seen the range in the winter. This seemed like it this
was the year to get down to California and finally do some touring, but her
nursing school schedule had us limited to only a handful of days in late March.
Decided four days prior to spring break that a short time in the sun in the
Sierras would still be worth it, so we scrounged what info we could and
barreled down there.<o:p></o:p></div>
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I think we basically spent four days skinning around mouths
agape staring at the lifetime of beautiful ski runs to be had in every
direction. The Dan Mingori & Nate Greenberg Backcountry Skiing Californias
Eastern Sierra 2nd Edition is a fantastic guidebook. I’d also recommend getting
the supplemental app (you can buy it or rent it), being new to the area, it was
cool to have the routes accessible on our phone while out touring.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Road access is pretty good right now, but it’ll get better.
In late April a lot more roads are plowed out so anglers can start fishing at
all the high lakes. Buttermilk Rd suffered some damage this winter, you may
need a 4x4 for that one, but it seems like a lot of the other roads are paved
the whole way. Rock Creek is the only
snowpark in the Mammoth/Bishop vicinity, and supposedly you can buy a day pass
at the snowpark, but we couldn’t find the pay station maybe its there, maybe it
would be better to get a pass at the ranger station.<o:p></o:p></div>
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Watch the overnight low temps- seems like corn o clock can
be as early as 9am some days. Maybe wind is less of an issue later in the spring,
but wow did we have a windy day and got totally shut down on finding soft snow
in the alpine on one of our tours.<o:p></o:p></div>
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We didn’t check out anything north of Mammoth- given our
short amount of time, we only managed to do a tour around Convict Lake/Mini
Morrison, then Bishop Bowl near North Lake, Mt.Alice out of Big Pine, and
McGee, just south of Mammoth. The locals we met on McGee said some seasons it
never gets enough snow to be skiable, but this year it was fat. <o:p></o:p></div>
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Wish we would’ve had a few weeks to spend down there- skiing
wide open terrain into warm sagebrush valleys is a trip.<o:p></o:p></div>
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/DCnVMjYq6wmjgwkZ8" target="_blank">Linky to photos here</a></div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-53549085604098082692017-01-04T20:40:00.000-08:002017-01-04T20:46:12.816-08:00New Years skiing<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/q13iTcDnFfb9pTt96" target="_blank">Link to all the pictures here</a><br />
<span style="color: #0000ee; text-decoration: underline;"><br /></span>
I had a four-day weekend and Becky was on winter break and the snow conditions were setting up to make for an epic weekend.<br />
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Day 1 - Bullion Basin. Amazingly our group never saw anyone on the east side of the basin all day. No other ski tracks to cross, no competition for what pitch to ski next, just total solitude.<br />
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Day 2 - Mt.Snoqualmie. Becky and I wanted to get back to town in time to watch the Peach Bowl, so we figured we'd just do a quick half day. We climbed up the Phantom trees and upper south slope of Snoqualmie and had some amazing views and great snow. We were shocked that the Slot Couloir hadn't been skied yet that day, but as a rule we always like to have a rope to ski-cut the top of it....no rope (and not enough time either) so some other lucky folks got fresh tracks. <br />
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Day 3 - Chair Peak Circumnavigation. Back up to Snoqualmie with our friends early on Sunday. The snow was even better than the day before now that the breakable crust at the lower elevations was covered with about eight inches of fresh snow.<br />
As we approached Byrant Col, the weather socked in and we couldn't see anything. We were concerned about stability and lack of visibility, so we opted to tour around Pineapple Pass instead. Every time I pass by Melakwa Lake, I wanna camp out there and ski all the slopes in the vicinity. It was a pleasant surprise to reach Melakwa Pass and see that there were only three sets of ski tracks out in front of us...plenty of room for fresh lines for all of us. Everyone kept chugging along and we rolled into the Alpental parking lot with about fifteen minutes of daylight left before we would've had to click on our headlamps.<br />
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Day 4 - Chair Peak north slopes. The crew from the previous days touring wasn't up for another day, but Ross and Bob hadn't been out yet this weekend, so I tagged along with them. First lap was down the Snow Lake couloir, then back up the north shoulder of Chair Peak and down the main north slopes to the lake. I was glad the day wrapped up around 2pm as my legs were beginning to feel like lead bricks after the previous days trips.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-81444088925057905032016-09-17T17:52:00.000-07:002016-09-17T17:53:33.693-07:00Wyoming road trip! Wind River range backpacking with the Tetons and Yellowstone on the drive home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/PzamPLv6ZcHp2gucA" target="_blank">Photo album here</a><br />
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<a href="http://www.hillmap.com/m/ag1zfmhpbGxtYXAtaGRychULEghTYXZlZE1hcBiAgICI-s29Cgw" target="_blank">link to the Hillmap page showing our route</a><br />
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For years Becky has been talking about the Wind River Range in Wyoming. She'd be out there to visit Cirque of the Towers before we started dating and thought the area was amazing. When brainstorming destinations for our end of the summer backpacking trip, this seemed like a good option - supposedly similar to the Sierras, but way fewer people, no permits and by late summer we'd likely miss the bugs and afternoon thunderstorms.<br /><br />We took two days to get out to Pinedale, the small town at the western base of the central Winds. The weather had been cold and wet on the drive out. We hoped that was the 'late summer snowstorm' the various guidebooks mentioned and that we'd have nice Indian Summer weather and no mosquitoes for our trip. The weather cleared out on the day before we drove to the trailhead and we could see the alpine was shellacked with fresh snow.<br /><br />Day 1 was all on-trail, heading from the Elkhart Park trailhead to Cook Lakes. It ended up being a little confusing though with the multitude of trail intersections and signage that was either absent or tilted at 45 degrees. By early evening we were camped near Cook Lakes, looking forward to our first stretch of off-trail travel on day two.<br /><br />Day 2 was almost all off trail from Cook Lakes to Indian Basin. While researching various routes, we thumbed through the Falcon brand hiking and climbing guidebooks for the Wind River range and found them to be sorely lacking in the usual kind of trips that we like to do. Fortunately, I stumbled on to the 'Beyond Trails in the Wind River Mtns of Wyoming' by Nancy Pallister. This was what we needed. A former NOLS instructor created a book with a ton of cool off-trail routes. We used her book to string together a couple off-trail sections with on-trail travel and came up with a 60 mile loop that was low commitment enough that we could get back to the car in two days or less if something went sideways on the trip. <br /><br />Traveling from Cook Lakes to Wall Lakes, over Wall-Island Pass and into the base of Indian Basin was fun...albeit slow going. Lots of boulder hopping and a little lakeside scrambling. By dinner time we were at Lake 10,813. Finding a flat tent-site was a little challenging amidst all the boulders and hummocks.<br /><br />Day 3. We hiked up into Indian Basin proper, ditched some of our overnight gear and day hiked up to Indian Pass to get a glimpse over the Continental Divide. Tons of wonderful lakes in the basin...well worth the trip! After lunch, we gathered up our cached gear and headed on-trail into Titcomb Lakes Basin, allegedly one of the most popular destinations in the Wind River mountains. It wasn't at all crowded, but after yesterday and not seeing anyone, it was still a bit of an adjustment to see other parties every twenty minutes or so. It was really windy that night and our poor lightweight tent did not fare too well until we lashed it down with some additional parachute cord.<br /><br />Day 4. Up early to tackle Knapsack Pass. We knew this would be the worst of the off-trail travel on our loop. Fortunately, the day before we met two nice fellows who'd just descended from the pass and they said there wasn't any snow travel involved...no need for our microspikes and self-arrest grip ski poles after all. The travel was easy until the last 200 vertical feet to the pass. The smaller talus and scree on the left provided a thin covering on top of rock-hard, old glacial ice (very slippery), and the boulders to the right looked somewhat precarious, but we scrambled up the boulders and were safely on the pass in no-time. <br /><br />Off the west side, there was a faint trail that made for easy travel down towards Peak Lake. We stopped early that day though when we found an idyllic campsite next to a small teal-green tarn and a perfect windbreak of small scrubby trees. The afternoon was spent napping in the sun and reading.<br /><br />Day 5. A few boulders to hop down to Peak Lake and then on-trail over Shannon Pass. We were now on the home-stretch of the loop and were well ahead of schedule. By lunchtime we dumped our packs at lower Jean Lake and spent another lazy afternoon in the sun.<br /><br />Day 6. About half the parties leaving the trailhead listed 'Island Lake' as their destination. We had yet to see Island Lake, so we detoured off-trail from Jean Lake over to Island Lake for lunch. It was pretty, but so were all the other destinations we'd see the past few days (we were so spoiled!) Fortunately, the labor day weekend crowds were long gone and it was rather peaceful. We figured we'd put in a few more miles and camp near Seneca Lake for the night as our weather radio had said the next day would be cool and rainy.<br /><br />As we neared Seneca Lake though, we decided to put in a few more miles and make our rainy 7th day hike back to the car a little shorter. Funny thing was that shortly after leaving Seneca Lk we started to smell smoke, and then see plumes of it rising from the valley below us. This was the hottest, windiest day yet that week and it was clear a wildfire had started. Without having any details on it, we were reluctant to set up camp, so we kept on hiking towards a viewpoint called Photographers Point to see if we could suss out what was going on.<br /><br />When we arrived at the Point, we met several in-bound parties who'd stopped and called 911. We had a clear view below to an uncontrolled fire, crowning in the canopy a couple miles away. Helicopters were orbiting regularly and Becky and I decided it was time to head for the car. Just earlier in the day we'd been joking about how we only liked doing high-mileage days when backpacking in our comfy, lightweight sneakers and now here we were, walking seventeen miles that day in our heavy, stiff, high-topped leather hiking boots. Oh well.<br /><br />We arrived at the trailhead around 7pm, just as a ranger was stapling up a 'trail closed' sign. A few local wildland fire fighters were milling about and we all got a good laugh that Becky and I were scooting out just as the trail was being closed. The next challenge of the day was whether we could make it to Pinedale in time to score a motel room and a meal on a late Sunday night. Fortunately the Sundance Motel had a vacancy and the Wind River Brewery stays open late, so burgers, beers, a shower and a clean bed were all found Sunday night.<br />
<br />Monday was drizzly and cool, as expected and we heard that the fire had died down overnight and they were able to reopen the trailhead. We spent the day doing laundry and figuring out the rest of our trip. Tuesday it was off to Jackson and up into Grand Teton NP for some sight-seeing and day hiking. Wednesday through Friday was spent in Yellowstone seeing all the sites - Grand Canyon of Yellowstone, Yellowstone Lake, Old Faithful and a million small to large geysers, thermal pools and mud pots plus a bunch of bison to boot. I can't imagine what the summertime crowds must be like. Fortunately the crowds had died down somewhat by the time we were there and it wasn't too much of a zoo. Friday morning we got up early and did a little more sightseeing in the north part of the park before hitting the road and barreling through Montana, Idaho, and Washington to arrive home that night.</div>
Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-1334938918188775922016-03-26T14:14:00.000-07:002016-03-26T14:22:57.223-07:00Cerise Creek, BC <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/TZA4HxJN8fa2K55j9" target="_blank">photo album here</a><br />
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Becky's spring break had arrived and we had some skiing to do. Unfortunately, I was sidelined with a cold that turned into bronchitis the week before. We decided to stick with our plans to head to BC and just get in as much skiing as we could.<br />
Keiths Hut is a first-come first served cabin near Mt.Matier and Joffre Peak. We'd been up there a couple years before and mid-week there had only been a few people there- plenty of space in the sleeping loft for us to stay. Turns out that Becky's spring break coincided with the local school spring breaks too- so many a student and teacher was up there as well. When we arrived at the pullout along the highway we saw that eight cars already parked there meant that it was probably pretty busy, so we packed out tent just in case.<br />
A couple hours of easy skiing up through the forest and we arrived- sure enough the hut was jam packed, so we set up our tent nearby- at least we'd have a nice warm place to have breakfast and dinner before heading out to the tent. <br />
The day we arrived it was overcast and snowing lightly- the previous week the weather had been clear and cold, and then had a day of rather warm weather which pretty much cooked all the powder into crust or glop. We ran a few laps on the ridge above the hut...good skiing, not great.<br />
Day 2 and 3, more snow, poor visibility, but we were finally zeroing in on the best place to play- a 1000ft slope on the side of Vantage Peak had 2-3ft of wind deposited powder, was steep enough to be fun, but still shallow enough to not have much worry about avalanches. The wind was howling so much that every lap we had to break a fresh trail up through the powder to get to our previous high point. Toward the end of day 3, Becky started to get a sore throat- a sign that my cold had migrated on over to her.<br />
Friday was sunny and clear- a perfect day in the mountains, but Becky had a full blown cold at this point, I was still a little under the weather, and the previous three day storm cycle had us reluctant to race up into the alpine and ski anything all that steep. We settled on two very nice laps of sunny powder above the hut before we packed up our gear and headed home. Not quite the week of epic skiing we'd hoped for, but good enough. <br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-32140730729130667002016-01-03T11:45:00.004-08:002023-06-13T13:40:25.591-07:002015-16 season days 7-10, Snoqualmie and Stevens Pass<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mas4VCi6ps3kQNfa7" target="_blank">Chair Peak circumnavigation pictures</a><br />
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/VYRxxr8vLjnepfV89" target="_blank">Arrowhead Peak pictures</a><br />
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/73Hk71qsfxntDhA26" target="_blank">Snoqualmie Pass pictures</a><br />
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/1mrZCw2VjP2hxmgUA" target="_blank">McClellan Butte pictures</a><br />
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Becky had one week of winter break left before starting her next quarter of nursing school and I was taking a long 5-day weekend over New Years....fortunately the weather cooperated for us to get out four days in a row for a lot of good backcountry skiing. We thought about doing an overnighter, but with the snow being so good at Snoqualmie and Stevens and after last season's terrible snowpack, we were more excited about just being powder pigs and hitting all our favorite old tours than spending some cold 16 hour nights in a tent.<br />
First up was the Chair Peak loop...up down and around Chair. Great turns as long as we avoided the occasional patch of wind slab and sun crust.<br />
Thursday we drove up to Stevens and skied Arrowhead. A very cold day with temps in the single digits. More great snow, nothing affected by the wind or sun. Some recent logging on the lower slopes had the benefit of turning a stand or small, dense timber into wide open cruiser slopes on the last bit to the car. The Stevens Pass traffic was even worse than usual though...it took us three hours to drive home that night and I was ready to go back to the short one-hour scoot from Seattle back to Snoqualmie Pass.<br />
Friday we had plans to do a big tour with a bunch of folks. Late Thursday night we got word that all our friends involved with search & rescue wouldn't be able to join us- there was an overdue hiker on Granite Mtn and they'd join the search in the morning. With our crew down to just Becky, me, and Kirsten we skipped the far-ranging trip and opted for harvesting more powder close to Alpental. Despite skiing a southern apsect, the weak winter sun and tall trees preserved the powdery snow. We skied three long laps, returning to the car at sunset and never saw anyone else all day. Sadly, the search over on Granite did not find the snowshoer alive, he was found Friday amongst avalanche debris from a slide the prior day.<br />
Saturday, our SAR friends were available and Becky & I were all out of ideas on where to go, so our gaggle of ski buddies headed up for more of a silly, exploratory trip. We were pretty sure the strong east winds coming out of Snoqualmie Pass had wrecked the slopes of McClellan Butte, but we figured we'd get some exercise. The low elevation snowpack allowed us to start sking right off of I-90 at only 1,400ft elevation. We skied up the forest service road and entered the forest around 2000ft. Up to about 3,200ft to take a look around and unfortunately the upper slopes didn't look safe, so we took two short laps in a low angle clearing and then bashed our way through the forest and back to the road. While on the road, we helped push a 4x4 truck out of a ditch, and then everyone hitched a ride back to the cars to save their ski bases from being damaged on the gravel-studded icey snow next to the road. I was using my beat-up old skis, so I went ahead and skated/shuffled back to the car. And as all Snoqualmie Pass ski tours should properly end, we headed to Rhodies BBQ for pulled pork sandwiches on our way home.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-15398015838963565542015-12-19T05:57:00.001-08:002023-06-13T13:43:01.211-07:00Day 6 of the season- Snoqualmie Pass<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Mas4VCi6ps3kQNfa7" target="_blank">pictures here</a><br />
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Last Saturday, Becky and I climbed up the Alpental ski area for a couple laps...the last day before the resort started to prep for opening in the coming days. The top half was excellent, but the lower half was pretty marginal...still lots of creeks, rocks, alder, etc. The following day we toured around Stevens Pass...much better coverage but still rather short runs off of Skyline Ridge before we hit early season obstacles (creeks, brush, etc).<br />
The past week, one storm after the next hammered the Cascades, and our dear friend Snoqualmie Pass picked up a ton of snow. With the resorts up there now open, it was time to tour a little further afield and get back to some slopes that were never even skiable last year.<br />
A trip report was posted on the Turns-All-Year website the day before for the Kendall trees area, so we figured that might be a rather busy spot, so we opted for some spots around Source Lake. The snow was deep, and pretty light too...after last season it was wonderful to ski around Snoqualmie in deep, floaty snow. <br />
At the end of the day as we skied back towards Source Lake, we were surprised to see barely any tracks on the slopes that normally would be thrashed at days end... we guessed that a lot of folks didn't think the Snoqualmie backcountry was deep enough to ski yet. The shuffle back out to the parking lot took a bit longer than usual as the downtrack wasn't really set in yet and there were lots of small ups and downs that required sidestepping and shuffling.<br />
What a day though... we all know that El Nino years can mean a bad winter later in the season, but man..at least we've off to a good start at the beginning of the winter!</div>
Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-8715885037489804642015-11-15T08:07:00.001-08:002023-06-13T13:53:37.695-07:00Baker backcountry skiing - first deep day of the season<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Baker got hit with a big storm- all of a sudden the ski area, which hadn't even opened yet, had a deeper snowpack than it had all of the previous season. </div>
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Since just about everything south of Baker had received rain instead of snow, it seemed like all of western Washington would be making a pilgrimage to the Baker vicinity. Although the ski resort wasn't open yet, it was a given there'd be a few hundred folks skinning for turns this weekend.</div>
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It was a pleasant surprise that two old friends of mine, Ema and Murray, both who have kiddos now and I haven't skied with in ages were free this weekend. So the old-school ski gang from Washington Alpine Club classes of the early 2000's carpooled to Baker for some turns.</div>
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Fortunately we had skis on our feet by 8am and got in a couple laps before the crowds arrived. The snow was deeeeep, and a little heavy at times...those with skinny old rock skis had a hard time getting up to speed. I was glad I gambled and brought my big skis- hitting rocks was a non-issue.</div>
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Great to have a day of touring before Thanksgiving in snow that was deeper than just about every day I had last year. <br /><br />
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/AmRaRcVAJTAo1VGP9" target="_blank">Linky to photo album</a><br /></div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-66070838527946876042015-10-04T10:57:00.000-07:002018-04-21T08:44:11.349-07:00Upper Enchantments & Little Annapurna hike<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/Z8Ej1qjws8ekXgz02" target="_blank">link to photos</a><br />
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Becky had to study this weekend, so I was solo for mountain activities. Although I figured there'd be big crowds hiking through the Enchantments to gawk at the fall color of the larch trees, I still wanted to get up there. <br />
Without a car or bike shuttle set up to do the usual Enchantments through-hike from Stuart Lake to Snow Creek, I opted to just hike up and back down via Aasgard Pass & the Stuart Lake trailhead. Drove out Saturday night and car camped- then got hiking at 5am. Made it to Colchuck Lake by 7am, just as there started to be enough light to turn off the headlamp. Colchuck Lake is so low right now that the usual scrambling over boulders on the west side of the lake can be skipped and one can just walk the freshly exposed shoreline beach that I'd never seen before as its usually under water.<br />
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Got to Aasgard Pass by 9am and then across the upper Enchantments and topped out on Little Annapurna by 10am. Surprisingly, I had a strong cell phone signal, so since I had the summit all to myself and I wasn't going to ruin anyone's wilderness experience by firing up my phone, I gave Becky a call and we had a video chat, showing her the view with my phone camera.<br />
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Started back down around 10:30, took a few long breaks to enjoy the views. Got to Colchuck Lake at 3:00 and put the headphones on and started running....figured I was by myself, so why not try to get a bit of exercise out of the return trip. Made it to the trailhead less than an hour later and was heading home by 4. Usually the goal for an Enchantments trip is to get back to the car before dark- this time around, I was home before sunset- not a bad day.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-55419341421654350392015-09-05T01:30:00.000-07:002018-04-21T08:58:45.316-07:00Muir Snowfield - first skiing of the season<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Just two weeks ago, Becky and I were hiking up the Muir Snowfield on our way to Camp Muir and the summit of Rainier the following day. At the time, the snowfield was a melty mess of dirty exposed ice, runnels, and sun-cupped neve- more or less unskiable, or a the the very least a really unpleasant ski. Its always amazing how one good storm can cover up the late summer mess and make slopes skiable again. <br />
Over the week, we eagerly watched the weather telemetry and webcams as the early season storms started covering the mountain with its first blanket of snow. We figured by the weekend it should be time to get the skis out. The new snow won't last...a few days of sunny weather will cook it off
again, but for the short-term, one could pretend that winter had
arrived.<br />
The weather was overcast and cool as we shouldered our packs and headed up the trail. There was a dusting of snow as low as the Paradise parking lot. The hike up to the toe of the Muir Snowfield at 7,500ft went quickly and we'd occasionally catch glimpses of the upper mountain through the clouds.<br />
We broke out into the sunshine as we switched from our sneakers to skis and boots...the weather was warm enough we were in short-sleeved shirts. The skin up the snowfield went quickly, we'd occasionally cross paths with parties of climbers and we saw the first couple skiers heading down- the snow looked great.<br />
As the morning wore on, the clouds started to climb up the mountain and we were occasionally enveloped in a whiteout, but with the cattle-path of boot prints running up to Camp Muir, it was easy to tell where to go.<br />
We were a little disappointed upon arriving at Camp Muir that the clouds limited our view to about fifty feet...not ideal for skiing. We took a long break and waited to see if things would improve, but it didn't seem likely, so we started our slow ski down in wonderful, almost powdery snow with limited visibility. Fortunately, we got a few breaks in the clouds and could ski full-speed. At 8,500ft, we put the skins back on and climbed for another lap...the snow was too good and it had been too long to just limited ourselves to one lap on the snowfield. Back up about 1,000ft to the top of the best slope and then down again. By this time, there was a steady stream of day-trippers and other skiers on the snowfield too.<br />
As we descended, the clouds got thicker, it started snowing in earnest and we had to don our rain jackets. At 7,500ft it was time to rack the skis and start the hike down. Heavy wet flakes were falling and it was far from the mostly sunny forecast that was slated for today.<br />
Nice to get the skis back on the snow and run around in some stormy weather after so many weekends of dry, hot weather. <br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-74234042709744923382015-08-23T23:15:00.001-07:002023-06-13T13:55:34.186-07:00Mt.Rainier - Disappointment Cleaver<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://goo.gl/photos/LSLNpzPe1WVtyenX8" target="_blank">Linky to photo album</a><br /> </div><div class="MsoNormal">It had been two years since I’d last climbed and
skied
Rainier and it was gnawing at me that during the relatively short window
this
spring to climb and ski it I had missed out.
As Becky and I worked our way through our summertime ‘to-do’ list, we
were starting to run out of destinations on our list. Somehow,
amazingly, we
had a 100% success rate on every climbing/skiing trip this
summer…that’s never
happened before. I guess when Washington is having its driest summer in
ages, one doesn't have to worry about getting weathered off a mountain.
So, with our list
getting rather short due to all the successful trips, and a couple of
the destinations being areas that were
currently burning up north- we decided somewhat at the last minute to go
take a
shot at Rainier.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
This time of year, the mountain is a lumpy, bumpy mess of
sun-cupped snow, waist-high nieve penitente snow formations, bare rock (of
varying quality), and lots of open crevasses.
While its virtually impossible to ski from the summit this time of year,
its still a fairly straightforward climb so long as you stick to the
Disappointment Cleaver route, which is constantly rerouted around new obstacles
and has a handful of ladder crossings that the guiding companies temporarily use for those spots where obstacles cannot be
end-ran.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We drove to Rainier Saturday morning and picked up our
permit- we’d hoped to camp at 11,000ft
at Ingraham Flats to get away from the day trippers and noise of Camp Muir, but
it was already all booked up, so we’d join the masses at Camp Muir (10,000ft) for the
night.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We took our
time, and reached camp around 2pm, and spent the rest of the afternoon
rehydrating and napping. Two friends of ours, Amar and Khanh, arrived
that afternoon...they're a fair bit faster than us so they'd be leaving
camp at 6am while Becky and I were opting for the more traditional
middle-of-the-night start time. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
I
got about three hours of sleep, Becky only got about one, but we were
up at midnight having our morning coffee and pop-tarts. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We
hopped into the bootpack and joined a string of headlamps slowly
chugging up the mountain. It had been over a decade since I'd climbed
the Disappointment Cleaver route and Becky had never even seen it
before, so ascending the 1000ft of scree and friable rock was mildly
nerve-wracking as our view was limited to the throw of our headlamps. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
We
took a short break at the top of the DC and had some food. Sunrise was
about two hours away and we were both feeling the affects of sleep
deprivation, but we snacked on some caffeinated gu's and kept on going. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As
the route wrapped around from the upper Ingraham glacier to the upper
Nisqually, we climbed up and walked across several ladders spanning
crevasses that would otherwise require a lot of work to get around or be
flat out impassible. The guiding companies do a ton of work to
maintain the route so their guided climbs have as straightforward a
route as possible all summer.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
As
the sun began to rise, we could make out Point Success off to the west,
one of the lower sub-summits of Rainier, and the altimeter showed he
had about 1,000ft to go.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The
wind picked up, our jackets went on and we ate a bit more food and just
kept chugging along. Eventually the crater rim came in to view and we
knew we'd made it. Up over the crater rim and we could see the true
summit on the far side. We dumped the packs and rope and made the quick
out and back hike to the top to take a few pictures, then ran
the stove to refill our water bottles.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
On
the way up, we hadn't hit a single slowdown on the route where large
guided parties or groups of less experienced climbers were taking a long
time crossing crevasses, but on the way down we started hitting the
traffic jams. Fortunately, several large parties let us scoot by in so
we weren't held up. Becky was already talking about her after climb
meal...she wanted to hit Katsu Burger and they closed at 9pm, so we had a
schedule to keep.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Descending
the Disappointment Cleaver during daylight was far more straightforward
than the trip up in the night. Now that we could see, it was obvious
that the route was very straightforward, mostly on low angle
scree...nothing to worry about. It was around noon when we arrived at
Ingraham Flats, 11,000ft, and we stopped for a lunch break. It was very
warm by now and we were both back to just our polypro shirts..no need
for a windproof layer or puffy jackets. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Back
down across Cathedral Gap and the Cowlitz Glacier brought us to our
tent, where we refilled our water bottles one more time and packed up
our camp. The goal was to get to Paradise by 5pm. The Muir
snowfield was a mess of open meltwater creeks and exposed ice, but in
the mid-afternoon heat we were able to skip wearing crampons and
shuffle, slide, and boot-ski as much of it as possible. We were glad we hadn't tried to ski it- there were two folks attempting to ski the dirty, lumpy old snow and we actually got down on foot faster than the skiers. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Another
long break at the end of the snowfield for a few more snacks and the
last of our water and then it was off to the car. We got back right
around 5pm, and pointed the car for Seattle. The weekend ended with
successfully making it to the Georgetown neighborhood in Seattle by 8pm
where we had our triumphant Katsu burger dinner (Katsu burger being a
deep-fried, Japanese inspired, cheeseburger....so good....so unhealthy
that one needs a special occasion for it). </div>
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-60291645816874034572015-08-02T21:03:00.001-07:002023-06-13T13:56:44.748-07:00Mt. Shuksan day trip via the Sulphide Glacier route<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/cPriJsqK7KDT6qnu8" target="_blank">link to photo album</a><br />
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Yet another weekend of warm, sunny weather in the North
Cascades, so Becky and I were off to climb Mt.Shuksan. It had been about
fifteen years since I’d climbed Shuksan and Becky had been up there before to
ski the Sulphide Glacier, but hadn’t climbed the summit pinnacle before.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Mt.Shuksan is in the North Cascades National Park and given
the weather, and popularity of the easiest route up it, the Sulphide Glacier
route, we didn’t even try to get a camping permit knowing that they were
probably long gone before the weekend started.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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Since we’d easily done Sahale in a day (14 miles, 5,100ft of
gain) a couple weeks earlier, we figured the stats for Shuksan (16 miles,
6,600ft) made it reasonable for us as a day trip.</div>
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We got to the trailhead and met a fellow who’d turned back
on a Shuksan day trip earlier when he couldn’t keep up with the rest of his
climbing partners. He’d said they’d started at midnight, yet at 8pm his friends
were nowhere to be seen. We decided to move up our wake-up time to midnight
just to make sure we didn’t get benighted on the hike out. We barely slept a
wink, as around 10pm, his buddies started arriving…loud music, air mattresses
being blown up by air compressors, angry bickering amongst their party…sounded
like they’d had quite the epic. At midnight, Becky and I finally got out of our
Subaru bivy-mobile and as the other party was winding down from their 23 hour
day, we grabbed our gear and without a word to them we started up the
trail.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A full moon, warm weather, and a fairly easy to follow trail
got us to the toe of the Sulphide glacier before dawn and we were halfway up
the glacier before we turned our headlamps off. We felt we were making good
time and both were a little groggy, so we tossed on the down jackets and took a
15-minute power nap shortly before arriving at the summit scramble - about
500ft of 3<sup>rd</sup> class climbing with maybe a 4<sup>th</sup> class move
mixed in. When we got to the summit gully at 7:45, there were quite a few
parties already moving up and down the route, but everyone seemed to be moving
well and was courteous not to knock any loose rocks down.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We got to the top at 8:45 and actually had it all to
ourselves for a few minutes. As a party of four was getting ready to start
rappelling down, we weighed our options of whether to do some short rappels
using our single strand of 30m or just down-climb it. Fortunately, the friendly
guys that were getting ready to rappel had a great idea - they’d send their
first couple guys down with our rope, they’d set up the next rap station and
rap on our 30m rope as a single strand, and the rest of us would follow on
their ropes.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It worked out really well
having two rappelling stations running at the same time. They got down faster because
they had our rope to use, and we had the ease of rappelling instead of
down-climbing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The whole round trip on the summit pinnacle took longer than
expected…three hours total, and it was nearly 11am before we were trudging back
down the glacier. Even though the glacier was a sun-cupped, lumpy mess, we were
both wishing we’d had our skis to turn the two hour hike into a fifteen minute
slide.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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On the way down, we picked up a single crampon lying in the
boot-pack….maybe we’d find the owner later in the day. We were also passed by a
single climber moving quite fast, only to see him again about twenty minutes
later coming back up. He’d ascended the Fischer Chimneys route that morning and
had failed to realize he missed the turn and was now 1500ft down the Sulphide
Glacier on the wrong side of the mountain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span></div>
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Finally off the glacier, we refilled our water bottles,
stowed our gear, and found the owner of the orphaned crampon. The rest of the
hike was sunny and warm. Occasionally we’d pass by a particularly lovely patch
of wildflowers or a patch of huckleberries to eat</div>
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Eventually we hit treeline, and then just tried to pound out
the miles and ignore the various hot spots on our feet.</div>
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Back the car at 4:00…earlier than we expected and we were
happy to do the drive home in daylight.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>As usual, the discussion on the drive home centered around dinner. After
considering many options, we decided that cheeseburgers and onion rings from
Red Mill was an appropriate treat for our thirteen hour day trip.</div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-36057591990741878002015-07-18T16:18:00.001-07:002023-06-13T13:58:17.497-07:00Sahale Peak climb<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/is23bSKthCr8ZGGP8" target="_blank">link to photo album</a><br />
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As the summer of ridiculously stable, sunny weather continues, Becky and I decided to do a quick trip up to the North Cascades. We had originally thought about climbing Rainier this weekend, but we had family in town visting, so we couldn't be gone the whole weekend.<br />
A Friday night drive up the Cascade River Rd and a five hour snooze in the back of the Subaru, and it was time to hit the trail. Headlamps on and up the trail we went at 4:30am. There were other hikers/climbers car-camping nearby but no one was on the move yet.<br />
The weather was cool and overcast for most of the ascent, it made the hike up seem pretty quick and relatively easy work.<br />
No other hikers around so early in the morning, just birds, marmots, and a young male deer who appeared to prefer walking along the trail than bushwacking it.<br />
As we neared the toe of the Sahale glacier, we saw a few groups of climbers milling about their tents, but still no one in front of us on the glacier or behind us on the trail...we were starting to think we were home-free to have zero traffic jams on the summit pinnacle. As we got closer to the top of the glacier though, we spotted a big group...eight folks...all heading towards to the top.<br />
By the time we caught up to them, they had one person just about ready to start leading the last bit to the top, so Becky and I pulled up a chunk of rock and sat down to wait for them. After about an hour, their last climber was on the way up and Becky could finally get moving. When the group opted to stop, pull up their rope and lead another pitch to the top, we finally asked if we could just sneak past...they were very friendly and let Becky zip on by and then reel me in. Before even half of the big group of Mazamas were on the summit, we had our rappel rope tossed and were sliding back down the south side to the snow below.<br />
After a little lunch break and stowing our climbing gear, we hit the trail back down Sahale Arm towards Cascade Pass and the parking lot.<br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-22759582544117342442015-07-05T20:53:00.001-07:002023-06-13T13:59:32.842-07:00Mt.Olympus - Blue glacier route<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/is23bSKthCr8ZGGP8" target="_blank">link to photo album</a><br />
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Earlier in the year, Andy had tossed out the idea of
climbing Mt.Olympus over July 4<sup>th</sup> weekend.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Making plans months in advance, especially
for an objective in the extremely wet Olympic Range rarely pans out, but we all
penciled it in.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fast forward to June
and the disappointing ski season had basically wrapped up and the continued
high pressure and perfect weather is making an Olympus climb look like a pretty
likely destination for the Fourth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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We put in a camping reservation form, so we wouldn’t have to
deal with risking the long drive to Port Angeles only to find that all the
campsites were booked already.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Mica,
Andy, Andrew, Matt, Becky and I were all on different schedules, but we
eventually made it to the Hoh rainforest trailhead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The approach to Olympus is just as much a challenge as the
climb itself.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The trailhead is at 570 ft
elevation and the approach to our camp at Glacier Meadows is 17.5 miles and
3,500 ft of climbing, the next day we’d have a 8-10 mile 4,000 ft day to reach
the summit, and then Sunday we’d have that 17.5 hike out to look forward
to.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately the forecast looked so
ridiculously warm and dry we really didn’t need to bring much in the way of
insulation or foul weather gear. </div>
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The hike in took about ten hours, but was mostly in the
shade of massive old growth.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> The only wildlife we saw was right out of the gate, just a half mile or so from the trailhead. Just off the trail we saw a black bear and her cub toodling along. We kept our distance, but it was tough not to try and get closer to the cub that looked like moving stuffed animal.</span><br />
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the hike in and out Andy,
Mica, Becky, and I had the wonderful distraction of listening to the same
audiobook on our ipods.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Normally, I’d
poo-poo the idea of separating myself from the sounds of nature by having
headphones on, but when covering that many miles, it was great to have an entire book read to me through my headphones on the hike to camp. </div>
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We got to camp late in the afternoon, quickly ate dinner and
guzzled tons of water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Alarms set for
2am- from what we heard around the various campsites, most folks were getting a
very early start due to the heat, the crowds, and the likelihood of a
bottleneck of climbers at the short rock climb to the top of Olympus.</div>
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It was so warm that Becky and I used our sleeping bags as
pillows- long underwear was more than enough to sleep in, but we all got a few
hours of sleep before we were up.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>A
dark climb up past treeline got us to the lateral moraine of the Blue Glacier
just as daylight started to arrive on the horizon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The Blue glacier has virtually no rockfall overlaying the
ice on the lower reaches of the glacier and hardly any crevasses, which is
fairly unique in the Northwest- most of the big glaciers turn into jumbled
masses of cracks of dive below mounds of boulders lower on mountains.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On Olympus, you have a nearly mile-long walk
across an undulating mass of bare ice enroute to the upper mountain.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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A short easy rock scramble/walk brought us from the lower glacier
to the upper, snowy slopes of the Blue glacier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Easy travel across the glacier, through Crystal Pass, and on up to the
false summit, a few big crevasses and some moat issues to deal along the
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Fortunately we got in front of a
some big parties on the last bit of the climb and didn’t have too large of a
queue waiting for the summit pinnacle.</div>
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Andy lead the short 5.3 pitch up the summit and Becky, Mica,
and I followed along behind.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Andrew and
Matt opted for the 4<sup>th</sup> class scramble route to avoid the wait for
the 5<sup>th</sup> class option.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Unfortunately the masses on the summit and those behind us clogged up
the descent route, so we waiting on top for about an hour and a half till we
could drop our ropes and rappel back to the glacier.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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The descent went quickly, though the lower glacier was starting
to get a little tiresome on our knees and feet…heavier-duty boots and steel
crampons probably would’ve made for more comfortable walking, but our
lightweight boots and aluminum crampons worked well enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We took a long break at a small tarn just
above the meadows and soaked our feet.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Originally we thought we’d be back at camp by mid-afternoon but it was
nearly 6pm by the time we were back at camp.</div>
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Another ridiculously warm night of sleeping with the rainfly
off the tent and barely using our sleeping bags.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We were all up a couple hours before dawn
and started the hike out by headlamp.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>With our headphones continuing to distract us from the 17 miles and sore
legs, we made pretty good time and were back to the parking lot by 1pm.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nice to finally get Olympus, I imagine it’ll
be a while before we do that long hike up the Hoh again any time soon.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></div>
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<br /></div>
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<br /></div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-89032170254718160072015-06-07T20:00:00.001-07:002023-06-13T14:00:41.024-07:00Mt.Baker... last ski of the season?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/ewaGdnBTZoipgmHs9" target="_blank">Link to photo album</a> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">For the past four years now, Becky and I have done a summer ski of Mt.Baker...usually as our last ski tour of the season. Given how fast the snowpack is disappearing this season, we figured it was time to get Baker instead of waiting till mid-July like most years.<br />
We've climbed Baker plenty of times as a day trip, but as our camping gear as become lighter and lighter, its pretty easy to toss the sleeping bag and tent into the pack and turn the jaunt into a leisurely overnighter. We left Seattle in the early afternoon and were hiking up the Scott Paul trail around 4pm Saturday. Lots of day hikers out and tons of cars in the parking lot, yet when we got to our favorite camping spot just below the Squak Glacier, there was no one there. We assumed the masses must be one ridge over camping next to the Easton Glacier or just above us, but either way it was great to have peace and quiet.<br />
After dinner, we stayed up till well after 10 watching the sunset, then set the alarm for 4am. It was a very warm night... no need to even wear a hat in my tiny 1-lb 45 degree bag. The snow on the lower Squak hadn't refroze overnight which made for easy skinning up the glacier in the morning. It was breezier than expected, but with the warm temps it kept the ski up from feeling like being in an oven. Quite a few more open crevasses than usual this time of year, I guess even the upper reaches of Baker had had a rough go of it this past winter. <br />
As we neared a bottleneck of climbers heading down near Sherman Crater, we figured out that one of the huge groups climbing the Easton glacier route was the Washington Alpine Club climbing class on their graduation climb. We haven't done much with the WAC in ages, so we didn't expect to see many familiar faces, but we figured Pat was in the mix somewhere. Sure enough, as we waited for some parties to cross a snowbridge, we spotted Pat....who introduced us as 'Becky and Pete are WAC members too....and I married them!'. <br />
After chatting with Pat for a bit and letting the traffic clear, we continued on up. About halfway up the Roman Wall, the last slope to the summit, we switched from skis to crampons just to speed things up. Lots of huge crevasses below the Roman Wall this year, but the route steered well clear of all but a couple.<br />
As we reached the top, there were only two other skis and they were on their way down. We didn't spend too much time on the summit as the snow didn't need any more softening to ski.<br />
A quick uneventful ski back to camp through increasingly sticky and heavy snow and then we grabbed our camping gear and headed down. A gully to the west of Crag View got us to within about 50 yards of the trail, and then it was time to rack the skis and don the sneakers.<br />
Might try one more ski on the north slopes of Rainier in a couple weeks or this might be it...hopefully next years ski season will be a bit longer. <br />
<br />
<br /></div>
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-34480193801033555702015-06-02T21:50:00.002-07:002023-06-13T14:02:15.621-07:00Spring skiing road trip - South Sister, Shasta, and Hood<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><a href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/ewaGdnBTZoipgmHs9" target="_blank">Link to photo album</a></div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br />
Somehow Becky and I lucked out and our week of vacation lined up with some pretty nice weather. Even the day before we left, our itinerary was completely up in the air- completely dependant on weather and snow conditions...would we head north or south or who knows where. <br />
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Our little road trip started on Memorial Day weekend, but we figured that our prime destination of Mt.Shasta might be a bit of a zoo...so we pointed the car towards Central Oregon for a couple days. We had a great ski of South Sister as a nice warm-up for the week. Clouds came and went through the day, but it was still warm and the snow was good, although a bit sticky and mushy. We made it back into Bend just in time to grab dinner with Dru, Jen and their kiddos. <br />
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The next day, was to be the worst weather day on Shasta, so we delayed another day...took our time driving to California and headed over to Crater Lake. We'd been to Crater Lake several times with my family, but had never been there when there was still snow on the ground. As we drove towards the lodge, we saw a steep, short little slope running from the road to the crater rim....that slope needed some ski tracks on it. After 30 minutes of scooting uphill we had a lovely view of the lake from our solitary perch on Hillman Peak and had a short, fun ski back down. As we got back to the car, a park service truck was waiting next to us. We were worried about being lectured, but as it turned out, the two fellows had been wanting to snowboard that pitch for a while and were stoked to see someone playing on it.<br />
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On to Shasta, where we arrived at Bunny Flat trailhead a bit before sunset. It was nearly deserted, though the overflowing trashcans showed just how busy it had been that weekend. The next morning we shuffled on up the trail towards Helen Lake and our camp at 10,500ft. After 1.7 miles and 1,000ft of hiking we reached the Sierra Club shelter at Horse Camp and could put our skis on snow. The ski up to Helen Lake was quick and we spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the sun and reading.<br />
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The next morning, we both felt great so we skipped our acclimatization day and headed on up. The few other climbers that were camped near us had left hours earlier, so we had a quiet climb to the summit only seeing a few other people. The top 1,000ft wasn't quite soft, but we wanted to avoid the afternoon clouds that seemed to build every day, so we skied down to top of the Red Banks and took a break for the snow to soften. Around noon, the snow was perfect corn and we flew down Avalanche Gulch. Back at camp, we refilled our water bottles, grabbed some lunch and went back up. The afternoon heat was tremendous though and we didn't get more than about 1,100ft above camp before we ripped our climbing skins and skied back for the shade of the tent.<br />
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Rather than pack up camp, we decided to stick around for another day and ski Avy Gulch again. Unfortunately, some high clouds on Thursday morning delayed the softening of the snow and our repeat ski wasn't quite as soft as Wednesday. Back at Helen Lake we broke camp and headed for the car. We managed to find a dirty gully of snow that got us a bit past Horse Camp and only had a bit more than a mile of hiking to get back to the car.<br />
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Friday morning, we pointed the car toward Northern Oregon to meet our family in Welches. The family was gathering that weekend at Mt.Hood to celebrate the scattering of my grandfather's ashes on the summit. I had been stressing over whether we'd get good enough weather to pull this off for a while, as we'd picked this weekend months ago, but the forecast looked great. As usual, we drove up to Timberline after dark and crashed in the back of the car. We left the car at 3am and saw a steady line of headlamps high on the mountain - lots of folks had left around midnight.<br />
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We reached the top of the Palmer snowfield around sunrise, racked our skis and switched to boot crampons. As we got to the hogsback we had a great view of the masses above us crawling around. We had no interest in getting on the steeper terrain with so many guided parties and ill-prepared folks, but we took our time and started a slow traverse from the west and by the time we got to the old chute, everyone was out of sight. The chute was very firm, but the bootpack was good and there were plenty of ice axe holes for self-belaying. As we reached the top, we were thrilled that the morning crowds were gone and only one other climber was on the summit ridge. Becky and I got our picture taken with my grandfather's axe and some family photos and then the other climber headed down. Becky and I were able to have a quiet moment on the summit to release his ashes and then start down the chute before any other traffic showed up. By the time we reached our skis, the snow was softening.<br />
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We had a lunch date with our family at Timberline, so we couldn't wait around for softer snow, but we made good time and got to Timberline right around noon. Of all the times, I've climbed Hood, I never knew that the dining room had a buffet lunch. Pigging out for a couple hours while catching up with our family was a wonderful end to a week of sun and snow. <br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2465102907082901449.post-33735247010931780962014-09-05T14:38:00.000-07:002014-09-07T19:45:32.821-07:00SHR: post-trip, drive home<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<b><span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Post-trip:</span></b><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Becky decided that she wanted to
take the least-direct route home in order to stretch the vacation. We left Lee
Vining at 1:30 on Thursday, 9/4 and started our migration north by way of
Monitor Pass (so winding and fun to drive!), Lake Tahoe (so blue and populated
by the wealthy!) and finally Truckee (so cute and straight out of Sunset
magazine!). We purchased some personal hygiene products (since you can’t leave
those in the car due to bears), got a last minute room at the Hotel Truckee
Tahoe and took much-needed long, hot showers. The hotel was conveniently
located across the street from the Fifty Fifty brewing company so we walked
over, had tasty dinners, two beers each (great porter and a citrus-y ale!) and
made it back to the hotel in time to catch the last quarter of the Seahawks
game.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The next morning, we found a
great coffee shop in downtown Truckee where we picked up a couple of delicious
pastries and large coffees. We wandered the old-timey main street peering in
the windows of the numerous cutesy shops and restaurants before getting back on
the road at 9:30. Our next stop was Lassen National Park.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Our goal at Lassen was to visit
the geothermal area known as Bumpass Hell. It’s the largest geothermal area
west of Yellowstone! Along the way we discovered there is a trail to the
summit of Lassen Peak that is only 5 miles round trip and 2000 feet. We decided
to tick another Cascade volcano off the list, but were dismayed to learn the
trail is closed for restoration. Boo. We still got to hike in the 1.5 miles to
Bumpass Hell to see the boiling mud pots, steaming fumeroles and yellow
crystals of sufur dioxide that formed on the ground. Definitely worth a stop if
you’re ever at Lassen.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Continued west to catch up to I-5
and stopped in Ashland for dinner at the Standing Stone Brewery. Only tried one
beer here, a citrus-y ale, but it was very tasty and refreshing. We drove
another 10 miles up to Medford where we knew we’d find cheaper accommodations,
checked in to a hotel and crashed.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">The next day we drove up to
Eugene so we could wander the campus and Pete could reminisce about his days
there. It was game day against the Michigan State Spartans and the whole city
was crawling with people decked out in their finest Ducks gear. We looked into
getting last minute tickets, but couldn’t stomach paying $109 each so we just
got lunch at Burrito Boy, one of Pete’s favorite haunts from college, and
pounded out the last five hours of driving back to Seattle. The cherry on the
trip was that we got home in time to watch the Ducks trounce the Spartans on
TV. A fine ending to a fabulous trip.</span><span style="font-size: 13.5pt;"><o:p></o:p></span><br />
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Pete Aldersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04886320264751234050noreply@blogger.com0