April 1, North Slope of Chair Peak

Touring was on the brain, but no plans.  After yesterday's bike ride I was lacking a little motivation.  Luckily as I was sitting on the upstairs throne contemplating life, the phone rang.  "Crispin, what's up?"  Crispin said he was at exit 47, did I want to tour?   Well a little more notice would have been nice, but I quickly threw my gear together and met up with Crispin at Alpental's lot 4.  Two hours later we were straddling the ridgeline leading up to the NE buttress of Chair Peak.  Nice.  Dropped down to the cliffs that tower over Snow Lake, then skinned over to the entrance of the Snow Lake couloir.  Turns here were a little messy, but made for a great loop down to Snow Lake.  Climbed to Snow Lake Divide then cruised back down to Source Lake and the parking lot.  South slopes were pretty sticky by then.  Great day.

Crispin and Geeb, Pineapple Basin in background

Ridgeline leading up to NE buttress of Chair Peak

nice.

very nice.

Crispin and Geeb,   Mt. Roosevelt to the right

Snow Lake Couloir

Feb 7, Wind - Pineapple and Wonder Gully

Took a chair lift assist to head out with Don Hecker and ran into Dan Larsen as well.  What was beautiful powder earlier in the week, has been destroyed by the high winds of the last two days.   We found a nice pocket of powder on the Lee side of Pineapple Basin, then headed for the Wonder Gully hoping it may have escaped the wind.  Alas, the gully was totally wind packed.  Skiing was okay as there was almost zero ski penetration, but definitely on the firm side.   We did hear some settling as we traversed underneath the tooth, over to Bryant.  Dan Larsen did the quick video.  Thanks

Heading up into Pineapple Basin

Kevin with the Tooth in the background

Dan enjoying the powder

Headed up the shoulder towards Bryant
 and the Wonder Gully

Don carves it up

Don

Dan 

February 2, Searching for Pow

Hooked up with Crispin, Greg, and Dwayne?.    Headed uphill from the Alpental parking lot.  Lots of tracks above source lake.   We had fairly poor visibility in the Chair Peak basin, but finally found good visibility and no tracks over the west shoulder.

Greg

Classic Greg ski form

Crispin

Crispin and dog Geeb

Dwayne tele-turn

Kevin gets above the pow.

Jan 6, The day after I got the Flu

It started with a tickle at the back of the throat.   By Monday morning, I was barking like a baby seal.   It sounded eerily familiar.  Almost the same noise as the little old eighty year old women, I while working on Aid Car 2, two days prior.  She was laying on her back, barking like a seal.  I hear that the flu is transmitted by droplets that fly out of your mouth when you cough.  Those droplets can fly up to six feet and get inhaled by the unsuspecting. My partner had checked her lung sounds and said the noise was all upper respiratory.   Hmmm, I think that describe's me perfectly.   I should have suspected.  I should have placed a filter mask over that coughing mouth.  As I type out this report I feel like a post-menopausal women.   My hot flashes seemed to spike yesterday at 102, although the 101 today is not much better.   Menopausal hot flashes.  

But back to ski touring.   Scott Otterson and I had plans to tour Monday morning.  It was his annual one day of skiing.   He currently is residing in Castle, Germany trying to come up with software to make the electric grid handle all the new forms of power, like windmills.   It seems this kind of research isn't popular in the states.  Who needs renewables, when we have all that coal and natural gas.  Burn baby burn.

But back to ski touring.  It is always good to hook up with Scott.  Each year I wonder what piece of critical ski equipment he will forget to grab.  This year it was long list, and by the time I ran the snowblower in the driveway, I had about 3 different messages.  Originally he needed a shovel.  Then he found he was missing his climbing skins.  Luckily I have a full spare touring setup and wear the same size boot.  Of course that means, Scott does not get to telemark.  That's okay, since Scott usually falls a lot on telemark gear.   Although that meant our downhill ski was far too quick.   From then on the requests were much simpler, a pair of goggles, and perhaps some poles.

Scott on way back to source lake

Oh yeah ski touring, despite the rise of my flu, I manned up for an easy outing to Snow Lake and back.   We had received about 6 inches of new snow, but right in the middle was a nice frozen rain crust.  We joined the hordes on the trail to source lake.   By the time we hit the snow lake divide, we had left most of them behind.  In fact the visibility was so crappy that I went in circles looking for Snow Lake.  I even pointed the wrong way off the ridge to some snowshoers and definitively said, Yep, the lake is straight down there.  Luckily they turned around at that point and I did another circle and found the lake.   We did two laps down to the lake and then headed home.  Mediocre skiing, but good to hook up with Scott.   And the flu?   I went home and climbed into bed.   I am sure the day did not help for a speedy recovery.

Dec 23, Chair Peak area

Linked up with Seth and Crispin/Dave for a few laps around Chair Peak.  Skied North slope of chair to Snow Lake.  Skinned up towards Gem Lake and skied one lap from the ridge back to Snow lake.   Skinned across the lake and over Snow Lake divide.   Back up into Chair Peak basin to the thumbtack and then skied to source lake and out.  Best snow was actually above source lake. Made for a nice finish.

Working the ridgeline to the N. slope

Dave and Geeb

Crispin and Geeb

Seth

Dec 14, Chair Peak Basin

Don Hecker heads for the thumbtack

Headed up to Chair Peak basin with Francine, Don, Silas, and Crispin.  Despite our marathon day yesterday, Crispin had no problem breaking trail to just below the thumbtack.  At the notch to the NE Slope we parted with Crispin and Silas and let them track up the backside.  The rest of us enjoyed good turns back down to Source Lake.   



Ascending into Chair Peak basin

The gang minus Don taking the photo.





Kevin and Francine

Francine 



Don

March 24, Repeat - North Slope Chair Peak

It was so good Friday, that we went back for more.

Crispin leads up the ridgeline towards Chair Peak.
  We came over the thumb tack notch to mix it up, and took a couple of short laps just beyond where Crispin is standing.  Our final lap we started at the ridge notch visible, just right of Chair Peak on the right side of the photo.  A little more wind affected, but nice fall line turns.

Silas plans his powder line.

Crispin dropping in off the ridgetop

Charlie spoons nicely

Nice - Crispin

Charlie

Silas

Charlie and Silas show off the "wild" rear tail rocker

Great day - did a couple short laps down to the Snow Lake cliff band, then climbed to the upper ridge notch for 1,900 feet of wind smoothed turns to Snow Lake.  Silas managed to break his custom Kam Leang built skis about 200 feet above the lake.  Luckily he was able to limp home.

March 24, Repeat - North Slope Chair Peak

It was so good Friday, that we went back for more.

March 23, North Slope of Chair Peak

Possibly the best conditions I have ever had on what is normally a stellar run. 1900 vertical feet from Chair's NW ridge down to Snow Lake. Whew, it was nice. Hooked up with Greg Louie and Collin Darrah to chase after Crispin and Silas, who had an hour lead on us. Never caught them, but sure appreciated the skin track.

Greg and Collin tour across the north slope of Chair Peak

Kevin

Greg

Collin

Greg

Kevin

Collin

Collin

Feb 12, North Slope Chair Peak

Skinning higher on the N. slope of Chair Peak

Switchbacks to Pow!

Frank skis the powder

Frank had looked out on the N. slope of chair from the ridgeline, but had not skied it due to poor conditions. Today the sheltered N. slope was one of the few places to hold powder. When we crested the ridgline, Frank with ice axe in hand, we were happy to see good snow. We quickly climbed higher then dropped in for powder turns all the way down to Snow Lake. Nice day!