Jan 1, 2011 Mt. Roosevelt

With perfect weather, and a good crew we charged out to Mt. Roosevelt.    Wind had effected certain aspects, but we found some pretty darn good skiing.  At the end of the day, Seth had 5,000 feet of vertical registered on his watch.   Definitely a full day, and a nice way to start the new year.  I have too many good pictures, but hard to not post them all.

Seth breaks trail - we tried to wear him out,
 by making him go first the entire day

Greg boots up the crux pitch to Mt. Roosevelt, with Snow Lake below





Mt. Rainier in the distance, as Greg makes
 the final traverse to the top

Kevin enjoys a quick break on top of Mt. Roosevelt







Seth skis off the summit



Kevin



A little firm, where the wind blew.

Greg

Lot's of turns.

Happiness

Greg, back in the sunshine



Seth enjoys the best snow of the day.



Dec. 29, Mt. Roosevelt

1" breakable crust.   Not a good ski.

Feb 16, Mt. Roosevelt Circumnavigation

Hooked up with Scott and Seth with the goal of expanding our boundaries. Eager to go somewhere new, we climbed over the shoulder of Roosevelt and dropped into a new valley. The snow was variable but we got a lot of turns. Was fun to explore some new terrain and will have to go back with better weather and snow.

Jan 19, Mount Roosevelt

Frank checks out our objective from Snow Lake - the skating across the lake was great!

Scott kicks steps as he ascends the final steep section on our way to the summit of Mt. Roosevelt.

Frank in front of Chair Peak
Slope eases back on final skin to summit. Alpine Lakes Wilderness in background. Snow lake below.

Scott does the tele thing off the summit.

As I was editing photos for the trip, I circled back to the photos at the beginning of the month. What a difference a couple weeks make. Although Frank, Scott, and I were generally stoked on a beautiful day in the mountains, the snow quality does leave a little to be desired. Our first turns of the summit were definitely the best of the trip. As you can see in the photo, Scott even has spray coming up from the snow. The rest of the way down, which was not quite as sunny, involved a bit of side slipping and a lot of scratchy firm snow turns. However the great scenery and incredible terrain made this an excellent day.

Jan 22, Mount Roosevelt - Sunny day!

7 degrees outside, brrrr. Checking the telemetry for Alpental, 18 degrees at the top of Armstrong quad. That's a little warmer, slight inversion, good thing the sun is shining! Did Roosevelt on the weekend and could barely see where we were going. With the sun shining, could not resist a repeat to check out the views. Picked up Frank at 10, finished at 4:30, a 6 hour tour. Used the chair lift to access source lake, and get in a few extra turns. Frank and I were a little confused. Judging by the snow quality we must be in Utah! The snow quality was excellent on all aspects. Another great day in the mountains.

Jan. 19, Mount Roosevelt - elev. 5,835 feet

Snow and more snow. Color of the day was gray. We had an idea where Mount Roosevelt was, go over snow lake divide, ski to the end of the lake, then go uphill with a curve to the right. Since we couldn't really see the top, we started to second guess ourselves about the proper route of travel. Luckily we stayed on track, and made it to the top. The views were still pretty interesting, with a sheer drop off the summit. Will have to do this route again when we can actually see. Skiing, however was excellent, and we all enjoyed good turns back down to Snow Lake.