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| Granite Mt. gets a little sunshine. |
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| Selfie from Mt. Catherine Summit |
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| Untracked powder, just waiting. |
March 5, Mt. Catherine
Skied the lifts in the morning with friends and family, then after lunch headed for Mt. Catherine. Snow was excellent up high. Maybe six people had toured Catherine earlier, leaving plenty of untracked lines. Tried a couple new descents, Summit direct, and East end of the ridgeline. Both offered up great snow and steep lines. Still more to explore in the backyard.
Feb 25, Chair Peak Circumnavigation
Forecast for the day, sunshine and powder! Unfortunately the sun forgot to come out.
Pulled into Alpental lot 4 at 8:30 and was immediately blown away with the amount of people gearing up to go out in the backcountry. In fact, I think we would have seen less people if we had stayed in the near side-country and skied lift served. I do believe this, most likely, was the busiest day I have ever seen skiing backcountry in the Alpental valley. Oh well, we cheated with a chairlift start and headed to Bryant Pass, where we were the first group headed out for a clockwise circumnavigation of Chair. Dropping into Melakawa basin we hit a strong sun crust from the previous two sunny days and almost considered turning back for Northern slopes. We ended up traversing west to slightly shaded slopes and managed to find some decent turns by hugging the westernmost cliffs. Climbed to Melakwa Pass and waited for some kind of visibility. Yep. Yep, waited about 15 minutes and finally dropped into the abyss. Snow felt good, wish we could see. Quick climb under Roosevelt, led to some of the best turns of the day, as we dropped down to Snow lake in good visibility. We were joined by the Fall City gang of John Reusch and company, who bailed on the Roosevelt ascent, suffering some of the same visibility issues we had over at Melakwa Pass. After the Fall city crew rehydrated, we did a bonus lap up to the NE ridge of Roosevelt. We were amazed at the number of people skinning the lower flanks of Roosevelt. Luckily plenty of powder for all. Fun day, and good to get some mileage on the legs.
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| Kelly takes the steep line into Pineapple Basin |
Pulled into Alpental lot 4 at 8:30 and was immediately blown away with the amount of people gearing up to go out in the backcountry. In fact, I think we would have seen less people if we had stayed in the near side-country and skied lift served. I do believe this, most likely, was the busiest day I have ever seen skiing backcountry in the Alpental valley. Oh well, we cheated with a chairlift start and headed to Bryant Pass, where we were the first group headed out for a clockwise circumnavigation of Chair. Dropping into Melakawa basin we hit a strong sun crust from the previous two sunny days and almost considered turning back for Northern slopes. We ended up traversing west to slightly shaded slopes and managed to find some decent turns by hugging the westernmost cliffs. Climbed to Melakwa Pass and waited for some kind of visibility. Yep. Yep, waited about 15 minutes and finally dropped into the abyss. Snow felt good, wish we could see. Quick climb under Roosevelt, led to some of the best turns of the day, as we dropped down to Snow lake in good visibility. We were joined by the Fall City gang of John Reusch and company, who bailed on the Roosevelt ascent, suffering some of the same visibility issues we had over at Melakwa Pass. After the Fall city crew rehydrated, we did a bonus lap up to the NE ridge of Roosevelt. We were amazed at the number of people skinning the lower flanks of Roosevelt. Luckily plenty of powder for all. Fun day, and good to get some mileage on the legs.
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| Heading for Bryant Pass |
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| Dropping in on lower Melakwa Lake |
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| Grey turns off Melakwa Pass to Chair lake |
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| It was busy at the South end of Snow Lake |
Feb. 23/24 Alpental Side Country
The lift accessed backcountry saw very little action this week. The heavy wet snow dump on Tuesday was transformed by clear cool weather into some sweet POW. I was lucky to get out Thursday with Tom and Lori for a couple of laps, then today hooked up with Scott and my Sister's family for a couple more powder laps. Kristin and Maddie had not had the full Alpental back bowl experience and were suitable impressed. Great to get out with good friends, good snow, and blue skies.
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| Tom and Kevin at Piss Pass |
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| Dropping into Stokes Bowl, Lori and Kevin |
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| Kevin |
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| Scott, Kevin, Jack, Maddie |
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| Scott, Kevin, Maddie |
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| Maddie and Kristin make the traverse out to Piss Pass |
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| Maddie in Stokes bowl |
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| Kris |
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| Kris and Maddie |
Feb 13, Grand Ridge - Both sides of i-90 and new Water Tower Loop
I have been getting some grief about lack of content on the blog here. Well, mainly from my Dad. While I do something active at least 3 days a week, I usually save the blog for really cool stuff and actual ski touring. With all the good snow, I have mainly been skiing the chairlifts at Alpental and Hyak. I did make it down to Issaquah for a bike ride on one of the warm, sunny days. We are trying to keep our butts in some sort of bike shape. Parked down on Sunset and rode the South side of I-90 past the high school and up the bus trail. Crossed at High Point and rode the trail upward. Did a loop on the freshly opened Water Tower, then turned around and bombed back to the car. Great ride with Scott and Francine. Thanks to the WTA for the great new trail!
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| Francine on the new Water Tower Trail at Grand Ridge |
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| Scott and Francine |
Jan. 30, Kendall Peaks Tour
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| Greg skins the upper slopes of Kendall Peak |
Greg and I had not been in the Kendall Peaks area this year. With some mixed precipitation the day before, I had hopes of a little fresh up high. We had some nice pockets of soft snow, as we toured up into the commonwealth basin. Unfortunately, as we ascended through the trees, we could see that the skiing would not be much fun. The snow was somewhat soft, and decent for breaking trail, but it had refrozen enough from the prior day's warming event, that it was not ideal for turns. We told ourselves that once we broke out of the trees, things would improve. Not so much. Between old tracks and a firmish crust, not good. We stopped short of the Kendall peaks ridgeline, perhaps shy 100 feet. Conditions would have been good to top out, but with the prospect of no good skiing, we were not motivated to go higher. We traversed East and crossed the ridge into the Kendall Lakes Basin. Ski turns were on a firm supportive crust. We managed a few decent turns then hacked our way through the trees onto Kendall Lake. We went with my favorite emergency exit, for when the skiing just sucks, and skied the Kendall Lake approach road all the way out to the Hyak exit and called for a shuttle. All in all, it was a good day. Not stellar ski turns, but good views and we covered a wide variety of terrain.
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| Getting higher. Hyak in the distance. |
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| Not powder |
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| Kendall Lake |
Jan 23, Pineapple
Greg was in for an early noon start. With horror stories of solid ice layers, we headed for something that had access that wouldn't kill us. We did find the ice layer, but it had enough new snow on top that it didn't sting too bad. Not great conditions, but have skied much worse.
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| Greg heads up into Pineapple Basin |
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| Kevin makes turns off the shoulder of Pineapple Pass |
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| Greg cranks out the turns |
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| Not too scratchy |
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| No Fog - Greg Louie |
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| Did you find the ice climber? |
Jan. 19, Hyak
It's days like today that make me appreciate how great it is to live at Hyak and how cool it is to be be surrounded by friends that enjoy the snow so much. Once again, grouped up with the neighbors, and skinned from Scott's driveway. We had Scott, Diane, Trapper, Melanie, Steve, Tucker, Francine and I ready for another day of fresh tracks.
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| Steve/Tucker, Melanie, and Francine chat at the top of Rampart |
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| Lap 1 |
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| Trapper |
Jan 18, Armageddon at the Pass
Well, according to the news, Snoqualmie Pass is covered in ice and rain. Thankfully, the news is wrong, and the Pass has not dissolved under a deluge of rain. What we did have was consistent temps around twenty degrees. We had some frozen rain, but more like graupel. Not snow, but frozen pellets and a lot of wind compacting it. Probably about 8 inches of graupel covered by snow as today went on. Skied fast and smooth! Made a lap at Hyak with Ed, Francine, Scott and Diane. Skiing was good enough for Francine and I to do another lap.
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| Ed Sewall, fast and smooth on the splitboard |
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| Top of Hyak |
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| Ed |
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| Francine |
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| Scott |
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| Scott, Diane, and Sophie |
Jan 16, Tokul
Squeeked in a ride between the freezing temps and forecasted rain. Good to get on the bike. Trails in great shape.
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| Kelly and Francine on Golden Spike, Tokul |
Jan. 5, Back on Top, Mt. Catherine
Ski in the backyard. Wrangled up my brother Kelly and avid partner Crispin. Left the house with temps hovering just above the zero mark. A good pace up the freshly groomed slopes of Hyak, kept us warm, and got us over the shoulder to glide out to the base of Mt. Catherine. W meandered up Catherine on a skin track put in earlier in the week. There were a couple of ski tracks, but plenty of room for more fresh tracks. As usual the steep ski descent did not disappoint, and it was nice get good snow, four days after the last storm.
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| Kelly |
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| Crispin with Silver Peak in the distance |
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| Ready to ski |
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| Kelly |
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| Crispin |
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| Crispin |
January 2, 2017. Mt. Hyak
Day Number 6. That's counting my first trip to the Lake Keechelus national forest parking lot. .85 mile round trip on very flat ground. I have very low standards as to what counts as a day of skiing. Skis connected to feet and touch snow, count it!
I started at the house, skinned up the road past the first sewer pond then headed up the East slopes of Hyak. Lot's of tree blown down from the 2015 fall windstorm. Generally worked left avoiding getting sucked up to high. Eventually came to the edge of the powerline cut on the South slopes of Hyak. This pic is on a powerline access road that connects into the main Hyak Hidden Valley ski runs. This saddles out below the top of Hyak. So I didn't actually make it to the top of Hyak. Well, I did catch the chairlift up to the top.
I spotted this slope yesterday. I skied it today from treeline on the left.. Very nice.
Ankle really feels pretty good. The touring has really helped get rid of the last bit of swelling and has gotten my muscles firing. Aside from the one pitch here, I skied an easy groomer back to the base of Hyak.
I spotted this slope yesterday. I skied it today from treeline on the left.. Very nice.
Ankle really feels pretty good. The touring has really helped get rid of the last bit of swelling and has gotten my muscles firing. Aside from the one pitch here, I skied an easy groomer back to the base of Hyak.
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