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| Brandon cruises in the trees |
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| Ellie, smiling, must not be too bad. |
March 18, Snoqualmie Mt.
Went up and looked at the slot couloir with Brandon and Ellie. Due to time constraints, and unsure about exit conditions we gave it a pass. Looked to be in excellent condition. I am sure someone will enjoy tracking it up this weekend. We hit the summit, then made tracks to the bottom. Skiing was pretty crusty, although the trees skied fairly well.
March 9-11, Whistler
Rick skis Extreme Couloir, Blackcomb.
Headed up to Whistler for 3 great days of skiing. Fresh snow every day and no crowds. Had a good group of six excellent skiers; Rick, Marcel, Francine, Greg Mej., Randy, and I. First day was six inches of new snow and snowing heavily. Worked the lower slopes of Blackcomb. Good tree skiing. Second day skied Garbanzo at Whistler and then the Peak chair. Last day got up high at Blackcomb and the sun almost came out. Nice trip!
Feb. 26, Mt. Catherine
Whew, too much snow. With everyone exhausted from skiing non-stop for the last two weeks, it was tough to motivate for a ski tour. In search of something short, and without too much avy danger we headed for Mt. Catherine. Hooked up with Greg L. and Matt. Followed an excellent skin track up, then deviated to our favorite line. One quick lap, and we were eating brownies at my house by 12:30. Lots of face shots.
Matt at full throttle
Kevin and Matt
Matt
Greg
Feb 15. Red
Hooked up with Collin from work. Did a quick run up Red Mt.. Windblown up top, but nice powder below the treeline. As usual, got a good workout booting the top half of the mountain. The memorial to Monika was starting to get buried, but a beaded necklace was still visible.
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| Collin Darrah |
Feb 7-11, Revelstoke\Big White Ski Trip
Headed up to Revelstoke with Francine to see what the excitement was all about. Whew, Revelstoke is a big mountain. 5,600 feet of vertical. With 24cm of new powder on our first day, it kicked our butts.
Feb 2, Red Mt. and N. Shoulder. Good day / Bad day
Well looks like it is officially a body recovery, on the backside of Red Mt. Unfortunately while touring with Greg, we discovered a backpack and skis on the summit of Red. It quickly became apparent that the gear belonged to Monika, a friend that Greg had skied with a couple weeks ago. It appeared, due to a cornice failure, that she had plummeted off the steep backside of Red the day prior.We got out our cellphones and started to verify that she was missing. Francine at work, at the ski school, was able to contact her work and verfiy that, yes, she was missing. She then began the long process of calling 911 and alerting our local network of S&R, ski patrol, and fire guys. Greg and I started to work our way out onto the South ridge of Red, trying to get a view into the backside. Not getting a good view, we tried to work our way to the notch in the South ridge to gain access to the backside. Unfortunately we were cliffed out above the notch, and forced to descend off the ridge. Lacking any more energy and legs starting to fail we headed home. The rescue helicopter flew overhead as we started to make our way through Commonwealth Valley. A tragic end to very well respected person.
The day had started out so perfectly. It was a beautiful day.
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| Greg, with cell phone in hand, thinks about the situation. |
The day had started out so perfectly. It was a beautiful day.
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| John breaks trail to South shoulder of Red Mt. |
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| Greg |
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| Greg carves up the South shoulder of Red |
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| Greg on top of Red Mt. |
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| John takes turns off the summit. Had to hurry home to feed the cows. |
Jan. 19, Bootfest - Kaleetan Peak, Almost
With bluebird conditions and 3-4 inches of new snow, it was time to get out. It had been several years since I had summited Kaleetan Peak and it seemed like a worthy goal. Greg drove up from Seattle, getting caught up in traffic, which delayed our start to 10:30, which turned out to be a little too late. We utilized the Alpental lifts to get a boost up to the alpine bowls, traversed out to Great Scott bowl, then commenced our first climb up to Bryant/Chair Pass. After a quick skin, we started what would be one of many sections that would need to be booted. While the new snow had bonded well with the rain crust, it was not solid enough to allow any skinning on the steeper pitches.
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| Kevin enjoys the rain smoothed slopes as he descends from Bryant Pass down into the Melakawa Lakes drainage. |
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| Greg skinning up Melakwa Lakes drainage. |
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| Our objective, Kaleetan Peak |
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| Greg, at the pass above Melakawa basin. |
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| More booting, as the firm layer under the fresh snow would just not allow any skinning |
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| SO Close!! |
As it approached 3:00, we were lined up for the summit. Unfortunately, we would have to boot all the way to the top. With dwindling daylight, and two mountain passes to climb back over, we decided to pull the plug and enjoy some skiing.
Jan 10, Crusty Trees Across the Street
Don Hecker called at 7:30am. What are you doing? I said come on up. Do you have a snow park permit, because we can go across the street from my house? Don had permit, so we were good to go! The climb up was great, beautiful views up Gold Greek valley and back towards the Snoqualmie ski areas. We wrapped up the ridge heading for the funnel coolie, but the sidehilling through the trees, near the top, got pretty firm. We decided to rip our skins, and skied a nice Steep line through the trees. Unfortunately the powder in the trees was only 4-6 inches over the firm rain crust. Still fun, but I have to go back with a little better snowpack. Thanks for the exercise Don.
Don looking good in the trees.
Nice snow, out in the open.
Jan 8, Otterson back from Denmark
Scott was in town for two weeks over the holidays. With a jam packed schedule, he only had time to ski one day. Since he is in Denmark until May, this will be his one ski day of the winter. We tried to hook up last week, but about 3" of rain denied any skiing. Luckily with cooler temps. we enjoyed some great powder turns today.
We alway's give Scott a hard time about telemarking. It look's like a lot of work! He ripped the powder pretty good, but the survival tree skiing down lower was pretty tough. Maybe, he just needs to get out more than one day. Unfortunately sounds like Denmark is pretty flat.
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| Scott gets his first/only powder turns of the year |
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| Greg |
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| Scott Telemark "free the heel and free your mind" or is it "fix the heel and fix the problem"? |
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| It's a nice life. |
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.
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| Seth breaks trail - we tried to wear him out, by making him go first the entire day |
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| Greg boots up the crux pitch to Mt. Roosevelt, with Snow Lake below |
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| Mt. Rainier in the distance, as Greg makes the final traverse to the top |
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| Kevin enjoys a quick break on top of Mt. Roosevelt |
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| Seth skis off the summit |
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| Kevin |
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| A little firm, where the wind blew. |
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| Greg |
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| Lot's of turns. |
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| Happiness |
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| Greg, back in the sunshine |
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| Seth enjoys the best snow of the day. |
Dec. 29, Kendall Ridge
Hooked up with Chris B. and Greg for a tour. Yesterday we had a frozen rain event, but the new snowfall today made for tolerable skiing. About 6-8 inches over the crust. Crust was firm enough that you did not break through. As usual, just gaining the ridge was an adventure.
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