Not only were we the first group of customers to use North Cascade Heli's Barron Yurt for the season, but our trip was timed so that we could enjoy the lack of communication with the outside world surrounding the inauguration of a certain toupee-festooned orangerangutang in the other Washington (D.C.). Our group consisted of myself, my friend Luke and both of our dads, who originally hail from the same region of the NEK. My friend Luke was due to return from a business trip on Tues. morning so he and his dad, Brad, wouldn't be departing for the Methow Valley until Wed. With a weather forecast calling for a little bit of everything, my dad and I left town Tues. and headed over Stevens Pass to Wenatchee to stay with family for the evening.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...b3&oe=590EDD2F
The skiing at Stevens wasn't particularly great - boilerplate "off-piste" due to a bout of freezing rain in the early morning. Visibility was tough with intermittent freezing drizzle glazing everything along the ridgelines but sleet and even a little snow falling at lower elevations due to a waning temperature inversion with a warm front incoming made the lower half of the backside worth tolerating. The resort was not operating their steeper terrain served via the 7th Heaven & Southern Cross / Double Diamond chairlifts and I was glad my dad decided he'd rather sit this one out in the lodge for a few hours while I did some "product sampling" with the season pass I'd received free with the new Subie I'd purchased on New Year's Eve Eve. The lower you went, the better the turns got, but with a locked-up corduroy foot massage at the start of every run, it was easy to pull the plug at 12:30 when the precip really started coming in. We boogied down to Leavenworth for imported German beers & sandwiches at a Bavarian-themed deli and were back on the road to Wenatchee by 2:30, just as the freezing rain began to fall in earnest and made it into town before road conditions became hairy in the evening.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...76&oe=590EF774
We awoke early Wed. morning to the pleasant discovery of 3" of snow on top of Tues. night's mess of freezing rain and sleet. The plow trucks had been out working and we were able to hit the highway at 8, headed towards Loup Loup Ski Bowl between the Methow and Okanogan valleys. The Loup was reporting 4" of new overnight but it was easily double that when we arrived at 10:30 and it continued to pound snow all day, only briefly letting up in the afternoon and resuming just before closing. We drove into Winthrop and checked-in to our quaint accommodations nestled along the north bank of the Methow River just upstream of its confluence with the Chewuch. Our cohorts Luke & Brad had made it through Wenatchee and we agreed to meet-up at the Old Schoolhouse Brewery for dinner that evening. Two pints and a hearty burger later, we parted ways, with Luke & Brad driving through a heavy snow shower to their accommodations in Mazama, while my dad and I simply walked back across the river to get everything ready for the next four days of backcountry skiing.
https://vimeo.com/201070965
Thurs. morning we left Winthrop early enough to give us time to join Brad & Luke for breakfast at the Freestone Inn before arriving at the heli barn at the requested time of 9am (most yurt trips load out in the afternoon, but since the yurt was empty and they had no alpine groups we got to go out early and get an extra day of skiing). The skies were partly cloudy with just a skiff of fog in the valley - there were no concerns that we wouldn't be able to fly to the yurt that day. After a brief safety briefing on helicopter riding and skiing, we went outside for an extended amount of beacon practice. Finally, around 10:30 we climbed into the heli and flew directly over Harts Pass, buzzing Slate Peak, to the yurt where we unloaded everything, did some setup and had lunch before heading out to ski around 12:30.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...d1&oe=59189447
The Barron Yurt is located just south of Windy Pass in Indiana Basin. It has two stories - the "main" level has three sets of bunked beds along about 1/3 of the outside, two futons in the middle with a coffee table in between, a picnic style table for eating and a kitchen area spanning another 1/3 with a propane range & oven, sink, and storage cupboards for dish- and cookware. A single wood stove located in the middle of the main level provides heat and is used to warm up water for cooking & cleaning. The lower, "basement" level has a wood storage room (accessible from the upstairs via a trapdoor in the floor), a storage closet for yurt things (TP, propane lanterns, generator, shovels, tools, etc.), guide's quarters (a fairly small room with a bunk bed and a standalone propane heater), then two bathrooms - one with a sink, shower stall and toilet to be used exclusively for pee, the other a more outhouse-style setup for solid waste only (you're shitting into a sealable bin that gets changed-out a few times each season). For those unable to separate their #1 & #2, there is an old, hand-hewn log privvy outside a short distance away referred to as "The Rustic", colloquially.
https://scontent-sea1-1.xx.fbcdn.net...37&oe=590441E8
