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| Don Hecker hopes Santa brings some fat skis for touring in NW snow. |
Dec. 7, Alpental - Thick
Thick and heavy. Not very good skiing. Good stuff for covering the ground. The crowds were out in anticipation of the big dump, and with the green light from Gib, the patrol director, for one last weekend of touring before the ski area starts working to get it open.
Dec. 5, Alpy Again
More snow, more wind action, more friends. Did a couple of International laps with Greg Louie and Tom Davies.
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| Climbing up Rollen |
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| Greg |
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| Greg |
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| Kevin one-foots it after his ski shot half way down international |
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| Tom |
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| Kevin |
Dec. 2, Alpental
I sold big brother, Kelly, a dynafit setup. So, finally hooked up with him for an equipment shakedown. Alpental got a good dump overnight, and we were breaking trail at 8:30 by ourselves. The hill is really filling in nicely and should be in pretty good shape for the rest of the season, unless we get a monsoon rainstorm this week. We had about 10 inches of new snow over the raincrust. The way it is snowing tonight, avalanche danger is definitely going to be going up.
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Dec 1, Alpental
I got started about 12:30 with temperatures in the low forties. Actually was a pretty nice day with the sun coming in and out. Weaved through the creeks at the bottom of Alpental and made good time up to Chair 2. Area was pretty quiet with only two snow shoers ahead of me, and tracks from a morning group of two or three. Snow from Chair 2 to the top was about 4" of new over the raincrust. Conditions were springlike. Contemplated International for a descent, but stuck with what I knew, and retraced my uptrack down Rollen to Gunmount and back over to Debbie's Gold. Skiing was pretty sticky, but was able to avoid hitting any rocks. Hopefully we will get a good dump for tomorrow.
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| Top of Chair 2, Alpental |
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| View into the Alpine Lakes Wilderness |
Nov. 27 Silver Peak Basin
Did a quick tour up into the Silver Peak basin. I was able to drive the Subie all the way to Windy Pass. Unfortunately, I was unable to turn around, or park out of the road. I ended up putting the car in reverse and backed up until I found a spot I could park. After my ski, I ended driving in reverse all the way back to the hairpin. The road uphill from the hairpin is pretty well covered in snow. Ollalie meadows does not have an abundance of snow. On the way up, I started on the PCT then veered right looking for the logging road. Had to bushwhack through the small pine trees. On the way down I just stayed on the road, which was pretty good. The car ruts were getting filled in with wind blown snow. Up higher in the basin the rocks are definitely exposed. I was able to easily ski around them, but if it snows a little, there could be great potential to shred your ski bases. Snow was very firm with small patches of windblown snow that were okay to turn on. Another day.
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| Mt. Snoqualmie on the left, Lundin Peak, Lundin Couloir, then Red Mt, and Mt. Thompson on the right. |
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| Rocks in Silver Peak basin |
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| Able to park, unfortunately could not turn around. |
Nov 26, Kendall Lakes
Well, if you can't have snow, I guess that sunshine is the next best thing. Toured up into the Kendall Lakes basin. This is basically a logging road until the last bit. I made it to the upper Kendall lake, but didn't have the energy or time to go for the summit ridgeline. Ski down was an exercise in power wedging. Snow is continous to the trailhead, but just barely.
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| Road\trail into Kendall Lakes area. |
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| Powered by the blood orange - San Pellegrino -yum |
Nov 24, Alpy
Climbed 2/3 of the way up Debbie's Gold, then turned around and made survival turns through the breakable crust. Currently there is just enough snow to tour, but just barely.
Nov 19, Stevens Pass
Louie had the day off from EVO. So, despite rain predictions, we cruised to Stevens Pass for a little storm snow. Had three guys break trail to top of Tye Mill then we busted out a skintrack to the top of Double Diamond. Unfortunately the snow was way too deep and thick to link any decent turns. Oh well, good to get outside. Stevens is planning a limited opening tomorrow.
Nov. 8, Grand Ridge to Duthie, Issaquah, Wa.
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| Francine has second thoughts, halfway through. Duthie |
Oct 25, Day Numero Uno - 2012/13 Season
Woohoo! What a great day to start the season! Headed to Paradise on Mt. Rainier with Greg Louie, Frank Neuman and Elissa Eng. It was snowing lightly as we geared up in the parking lot. We had just enough snow to put our skis on in the parking lot(5400ft.), and start heading towards Camp Muir elev. 10,800ft. About Pebble Creek(7,200ft) we started to break out of the cloud layer and pretty soon I was wearing a t-shirt as we skinned up the Muir snowfield in glorious sunshine, with Mt. Adams poking its head out of the cloud layer to the south of us. A group of 4 skiers had broken trail ahead of us, and provided an easy skintrack to follow all the way to Muir. We made good time to Muir and took a quick lunch break. We soon started to cool off in the crisp clear air, and it was time to start skiing! Whew, good turns. I think we were all in agreement that the turns below Camp Muir were about as good as we had experienced on Rainier. It was great day to hook up with friends and start the season with a bang. It's hard to not ski the Muir snowfield and not be blown away by the amazing views.
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| Elissa, Frank, and Greg. Our destination, Camp Muir is on the shoulder of Rainier in the upper right portion of this picture. |
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| Frank with Mt. Adams in the distance |
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| Frank at Muir |
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| Elissa leads the charge |
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| Elissa |
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| Greg |
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| Greg |
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| Frank cranking out the powder turns |
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| Kevin |
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| Whew! lot's of turns. |
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| Mt. Adams in the distance |
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| Greg |
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| Elissa |
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| Frank |
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| Greg |
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| Elissa |
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| Greg |
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| Frank |
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| Kevin |
Oct. 15, Spy Photo - Greg Louie
You know it's getting close to ski season when you spot a photo of your favorite ski partner working the yoga moves. I better get serious about getting in shape. Looks like Greg is way ahead of me..
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| Greg Louie - watch out for the banana. |
Oct. 4, Crystal Mt. loop
Hooked up with Ellie B for a Crystal lap. Trail was in surprisingly good shape for having no rain. Sandy sections were better than they are in August. Views of Rainier were great. The ski area employees looked like they were hard at work getting ready for our upcoming ski season.
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| Ellie rides the dirt on Lucky Shot. Hopefully we will be back on skis soon. |
Sept. 15, Middle Fork Trail
Need a good workout? It had been awhile since Francine and I had ridden the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie river trail. It seems to be in the once every five year rotation. I think it's the serious grunt factor that it requires, without any large downhills for a reward. We made a loop of this ride by riding out on the road about 11 miles then approx. 12 miles back downriver on the trail. Downriver is a bit misleading because you need to earn your way both going up the road then the up and down, off and on the bike, rocks, root,s and stream crossing littered trail. You do feel like you are on a real mountain bike ride. No big views, but nice narrow singletrack draped over by moss covered trees and an abundance of ferns fighting for their share of daylight. We cranked out the trail in about 4 hours.
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| Francine - Classic Northwet scenery |
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| River crossing below Goldmeyer Hotsprings |
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| Kevin tackles the roots |
August 20, Blowout Mt. trail
This trip report is a little old, but my blog has been pretty non-active. Since Colorado we have been staying close to home and enjoying the recreation opportunities in our backyard, Snoqualmie Pass. We have been busy brushing out the trail network, and are even working on a couple of new trails. In August, I rode from the house towards Easton and hit Blowout Mt. trail a couple of times. This trail is tough enough that is stays very skinny. Views were gorgeous, unfortunately Mt. Rainier did not come out in this photo. The first trip I got stopped by a down log. The second trip I managed a 90 mile loop, including Manastash Ridge trails and exiting the Taneum area via.1321 (North Ridge Trail). Unfortunately 1321 has been heavily logged and is really not enjoyable. Overall a great ride. Next time I would exit via 1326 ( Cle Elum Ridge tr. ) to Woods and Steel Rd..
July 26, Colorado Trail - Kennebec Pass to Durango
Day 4 - Final day. Don and Val, the early risers, left about 30 minutes before us, and we didn't see them all day. No rain last night, so we packed up dry tents this morning. Rode down the rough, Champion Venture Mine Road to the Colorado Trail and turned right. For the next 3 or 4 miles, the trail conditions were a little rougher as this is a popular part of the trail to shuttle from town. After 5 miles of descending, we crossed Junction Creek started our 1,500 foot climb of the day, back up to 9,550 feet. Descended to pass the Dry Fork Trail and Hoffeins Connect trail to Gudy's Rest viewpoint. After this we had a sweet descent to the Junction Creek Road and end of the Colorado Trail. 20.3 miles on trail today. We then rolled into town for about 3-4 miles on pavement. Went to the condo building we stayed at for the 4 nights in Durango, for showers, and hit the road for 3.5 hours to spend the night in Moab with Don and Val.
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| Descending thru lush vegetaion |
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| Dropping more elevation before the last climb |
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| Colorado Trail - So Sweet. |
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