Feb 22, Funnel Coolie

The Funnel Run

Greg carves up the top.

Kevin finding some soft snow


This is where it gets interesting. Gold creek can be seen at the bottom of the valley.

Well I hadn't seen Greg in quite a while. Unfortunately between the restaurant, the bad snow year, and his dad falling ill, he has not been able to ski much. So, with the weather calling for rain on Sunday, I did not really expect to see him. I was having a nice breakfast of french toast and bacon with Francine when, at 8:57, I get a call from Greg. "Hey I am on the Alpental road. Are you ready to ski?" I quickly invited him over to the house, and started to shower and get my gear together. Greg was not too picky on what he wanted to ski, so I took him to the house window and pointed out the Funnel Run across the valley. I had lived at Hyak for ten years, and still had not skied what looked to be an excellent ski line. I had scoped out the approach last week, so quickly cruised up to the base of the funnel. The snow was about 4" deep of crusty snow. Skinning went quick, and soon we were at the crux, below the funnel. We strapped the skis on our packs and booted up the spout of the funnel. Once out of the constriction, we were able to put our skis back on and skin up to the ridge. We ended up at the top right corner of the funnel. After a quick peek over the backside, and a little lunch we started our ski descent. First turns were a little sketch, then we caught some nice powder lingering near the trees. We gingerly skied through the constriction, where an exposed rock demanded careful navigating, then we enjoyed some smooth snow, warmed by the nice weather, down to the logging road approach. Good to ski a new line! Nice to finally tour with Greg.

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.

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!

"X" Run Feb. 9, 2009

The view of Hyak from the top

Interesting Terrain

Waiting for the shuttle

It was getting late in the day and I had some energy to burn. From our house at Hyak, we can look across the valley and see a couple of runs off the close end of rampart ridge. One, I call the funnel couloir, and the other, which drops off from the summer hanglider launch point, the X run. This due to their shapes. The X is due to how they logged off the hillside. I have always looked at these runs, meaning to do them some day. However since you need a snow park permit to park at Gold Creek, I never quite got over there. Today with Francine offering to drop off and pick me up, I decided to do an exploratory tour to locate the route to the funnel run. Headed up the Ski-Tur Valley road(gold creek valley) and then branched off towards Rampart on a well defined logging road. The trail had obviously been well traveled by snowshoers and some skiers. Happily the logging road led right up to the base of the Funnel couloir. Due to dusk, I started at 3:30, I didn't have time to do the Funnel, but thought I could make it up to the hanglider launch site. Connected logging roads for an easy tour to the top. Switched to down hill and made the very steep jaunt back down to the road. Some very nice terrain. Will definitely be back!

Feb. 4, Silver Peak, elev. 5,495

Frank booting for the summit. Lake Annette below

Summit shot

Looks kinda steep!

Kevin on top.

Frank skis the spring corn on the South slope of Silver

With variable snow conditions, decided to give Silver Peak a try. The approach is a little long but with a variety of slope aspects, figured we could find some good snow. Cheated a little, and took the new Silver Fir quad to gain acces to the upper cross country trail system. Followed the buff crosscountry trail all the way up to the main gulley that accesses Silver's north bowl. Gained the west ridge and looked down on Lake Annette. In previous attemps I had always been stymied in my attempts to traverse the Lake Annette side of the ridge to gain a more gentle and southerly route to the summit of Silver. Today the conditions were perfect and after a little booting we made the summit. Dropped off the South side directly from the summit. Neither Frank or I had skied these slopes. With good sun exposure turned out to be some sweet turns! Definitely neeed to come back on a powder day when the turns would be good all the way down to twin lakes. As it was we made a descending traverse back to windy pass, then over nordic pass and back to our cars at central. Frank said it had indeed been a circumnavigation of Silver Peak.

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. 16, Lundin Couloir

Hmmm, the weather was nice. Snow not so good. Descent in trees was very variable.

Jan 4, Chair Peak Basin

I had taken a holiday from touring to enjoy some great lift served at Alpental, but was itching to get some human powered uphill. Hooked up with Ellie B. to try and convince her that Jackson Hole wasn't the only place with good backcountry skiing. Took advantage of the lifts to spin a couple of slack country runs, then we headed up the Chair Peak basin to take a look at the North facing slopes, that lead to Snow Lake. Unfortunately the N. side was fairly wind affected. Fortunately the turns back down to Source Lake on the S. slopes were silky smooth with about 14 inches of fresh stuff. Spun one last lift run down elevator gate to finish another excellent day.

Jan 2, Shovel Day

Started off the new year with a shovel in hand. With the colder then normal snowfall, my new garage had quite the build up. It had almost 5 feet of snow that was making no moves to slide on it's own. Hard to complain with the great skiing all this snow has produced!

Dec 22, Kendall Ridge

Hmm, ski partners kind of bailed on me today. Luckily, Collin from Ladder 10 called as I was getting ready to leave work. He was ready for a good workout, so he broke trail from Sahalie up to the Commonwealth, where we ran into Gordy. Seemed he had driven all the way from Port Townsend and was very happy to find two other people to break trail. Snow conditions were 3 - 4 feet of totally unconsolidated snow. It was a little windpacked, but not enough to keep the rocks at bay. Made it to the Kendall ridge then enjoyed some very nice turns back down. Nice day!

Dec. 21, Alpental

With the snow getting deeper, it was time for Alpental. Rounded up the weekend crew; Seth, Greg, Scott, Eric, and Holly. We had a nice skin track to follow, and cruised up the Edelweiss side to the top of International. Talked to the ski patrol getting ready for an anticipated Tuesday opening. They were all friendly, but warned they would be throwing explosives after today. As we passed gunmount, the skies turned blue and we could the surrounding peaks poking out of the cloud layer. Had excellent turns down International, then Seth and I headed up for another lap, with a quick detour to ski Lower Rollen. Starting to shape up like an excellent ski season.

Dec 18, Summit West

GETTING DEEP!

Dec. 15, Summit West / Hyak

Spinned a couple more laps at Summit West with Francine. Wind has been packing the snow and redistributing, but was still pretty nice. Tried a lap off the top of Hyak after lunch and it still needs more snow. Good thing snow is in the forecast!

Dec. 14 Summit West

A cool 11 degrees, but nice sunshine and fresh tracks. I have been waiting about 15 years for this day. The day that Scott O. got some quality telemark gear. He had a whole new setup(K2 Work Stinx, BD O1 bindings w/ free pivot, and new scarpa tele boots to drive the package). We chased Matt and Heidi up the groomed track, then we headed for Dodge Ridge, where Matt had scouted out untracked snow. The snow was smooth and deep! Scott was ripping on his new tele setup, and we managed 3 laps of fresh pow. Francine cruised for two laps (knee feeling good). A nice start to the season at Snoqualmie Pass.

Dec 10, Tour Crystal

With no snow at the pass, Francine and I headed to Crystal and found out how little snow was required for skiing.

Nov 29, Baker Ski Area

The weather forecast was lousy. Something like 7,000 foot snow levels and rain. But, Greg was on a streak! He had to get his November turns in, and this was the last weekend of the month. With little options for snow, we decided to try out the slopes of unopened Mt. Baker ski area. We arrived to a steady drizzle and took refuge in the lodge, which had kindly opened up food service for the multitudes of people that were taking advantage of the snow. We saw plenty of snowboarders and snowshoers, but not any other skiers. We eventually left the comfort of the lodge and toured up the ski slopes. The snow depth was about the same at the top as the bottom, which is saying, not much! We managed to pick our way through the rocks and despite the weather, were happy to get on skis.