Cowlitz Rocks...some mellow laps and moonlit camping

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write-up by Becky...

Wanting to take advantage of the fine weather by spending the night out, but not wanting to bite off anything particularly committing, Pete and I headed down to Rainier to park ourselves out by Cowlitz Rocks Saturday night. As many have reported, Saturday morning was very, very windy and on the skin up to Cowlitz Rocks we grew a little concerned that not only would we not find anything worth skiing, but our dreams of basking in the sunshine might be squashed by the cold wind as well!

We climbed up to the saddle between the Paradise Glacier and Cowlitz Rocks to get a look at the northeast facing slope off the backside of Cowlitz. It was in the shade at that point and looked better than anything we’d seen thus far so after a little poking at the snow we ripped the skins and headed down to find surprisingly pleasant turns! The snow was slightly sun-effected, but the crust was not aggressive for the most part and we got a good 800 feet of very decent skiing out of it! We decided our objective for the weekend would be to farm that little slope for all it was worth!

While we were skinning back up, we ran into Jason and Kyle who were doing a three day trip from Paradise to Crystal Mountain.  The wind had died down considerably by the time we got back to the saddle so we pitched our tent on a nice perch facing southwest and soaked in the amazing sunset. After an evening of playing with 30-second night exposures on Pete’s camera, we awoke to more amazing alpenglow and set off to harvest a few more runs. The morning sun made the previous day’s crust more compliant, as Pete put it, so the turns were even better!

After two laps we were ready to pack up and head out. We were a little worried about the quantity and degree of crust we might encounter on the ski out Edith Basin, but we were, again, pleasantly surprised to find all the snow perfectly edgeable and some, dare I say, almost corn-like.

News Years again at Cascade Powder Cats Yurt

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Just like last year, Mica, Andy, Anastasia, Marcus, Mary, Chad, Becky, and I had a New Years ski trip to the Cascade Powder Cats yurt up near Stevens Pass.   Early Friday morning we all piled our gear into the company's snowcat for an hour ride up to the yurt tucked into the north bowl of Windy Ridge at about 4600'. Once we got our gear unpacked, Ryan and his assistants ran us through a multiple beacon search scenario just to make sure we had our heads on straight before briefing us on their observations of what the snow/avy conditions were and giving us some recommendations of the best spots to tour to...then they cut us loose to run amok for the next three days.
Conditions were wonderfully stable given the quantity of the snow...finally a storm came in warm and left cold which gave us a 'right side up' snowpack, and we did our best to track the heck out of the terrain over the next three days.
Friday we had off and on snow showers that picked up overnight and dropped another foot of powder, Saturday was perfect...great visibility, light wind, tons of new snow,  Saturday night the wind kicked up and stayed strong through Sunday so our skiing on Sunday was an exercise in finding the least wind-affected terrain but we still got plenty of good turns.
A great way to celebrate the new year!

Crystal Mountain backcountry...finally some new snow!

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After a long dry spell, we finally got some new snow...only about 7" new showing on telemetry, but the wind did a good job doubling that on east aspects.  Occasionally we'd touch down on the old crust, but for the most part the snow was way better than expected.  Hopefully there's more to come.

Chair Peak mixed bag of turns

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Not much new snow during the week and the sun put a crust on everything south facing, so Mike, Ross, Becky and I headed up to Snoqualmie Pass for a quick your before having to get gussied that night up for the office holiday party.  We toured up to the north slope of Chair Peak....unfortunately the wind did a number on the snow and it was a total mixed bag of powder, crust, ice, and everything else.   Still nice to get out of the Seattle clouds into the sun and stretch the legs for a bit.

a little skiing at Mt.Hood, a lot of relaxing at Timberline

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Thanksgiving with the family in Salem...then up to Mt.Hood on the 25th for some post-turkey day exercise.   Becky and I got a crack of noon start from Timberline and skinned up to the top of the Palmer chair.  The snow up high was a mix of wind-buffed powder and small ribs of ice....perfectly skiable but not exactly great conditions.   As we sat around at the top of the Palmer snowfield and had a snack, a snowcat drove up the slope, turned around and headed back down, leaving a 10ft wide lane of perfectly groomed corduroy.  The Palmer chair wasn't running, so we figured maybe the employee had gone up just to inspect the lift towers or something...but whatever the reason, we were happy to be able to take a break from the variable conditions and hop onto the groomer for some lazy high-speed turns.
We still had a couple hours before sunset, so we toured over towards the west and yo-yoed a couple laps around Little Zig-Zag canyon that held some great calf-deep powder before shuffling back over to Timberline Lodge for a relaxing night of hot-tubbing and dinner.

season opener...Baker & Alpental touring

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Maybe being away for the fall is why it felt like winter showed up in a hurry...but the Cascades got plastered over just the past two weeks and it was time to get the ski season going.

Becky and I toured at Baker on Saturday...we expected the snow to be great, but the sunshine was a unexpected bonus.   Not a big day...our legs aren't quite in shape yet, but we yo-yoed some mellow powder and enjoyed the views of Mt.Baker and Shuksan.

Sunday, we met up with Kirsten, Mica, Andy, and Tundra for some laps at Alpental.  Quite brushy down low, but coverage and snow quality mid-mountain and higher was fantastic.

home!

 

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Got back to the good ol' PNW on Thursday morning...spent the first few days napping, visiting with family, napping, knocking the dust off the bicycle and motorcycle...by Sunday I was ready to play in the snow.
Didn't make much of an effort to find any partners for the trip to the Muir Snowfield...figured my pace would be way off after a month and a half of doing nothing but being a desk jockey in Shanghai and I figured it might be more relaxing to just tootle along at my own pace.
It was sunny in the parking lot but clouds were sitting off to the south...and as I slowly made my way up the hill the clouds continued to follow over my shoulder. Fortunately I was able to stay in the sun the whole way up and even at Camp Muir the wind was nearly dead calm which made the temp which was somewhere in the teens quite tolerable.
The ski down was a total mixed bag of ice and powder, and once into the clouds the visibility was terrible..but   it was so very nice to get back into the mountains after being away since September.