Check Out Our Shop
Results 1 to 14 of 14

Thread: TR: North Cascades Highway, May 7 & 8, 2016

  1. #1
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    PNW -> MSO
    Posts
    8,278

    TR: North Cascades Highway, May 7 & 8, 2016

    My longtime ski friend from Bozeman (Aenigma here on the board) wrapped up his 21st (?) semester of undergraduate work on Friday the 6th and struck out west, meeting me on Washington pass in the North Cascades on Saturday. I brought the truck camper and parked it at the gate to the pass overlook around 11:30am. We geared up slowly, taking time to level the truck and put together some food, then took his car down the 2/3 mile to the hairpin turn on the east side and began skinning by 12:30.



    Our route on this day was more or less the classic Birthday Tour in reverse, with a couple of variations to avoid the crowd factor. We made joking remarks about Guidebook Syndrome occasionally, observing from afar the tracks of many skiers following the route exactly as described in various references, and how one slope looked like an inbounds mogul run while the adjacent slopes remained blank. In the middle portion we came across several parties travelling the proper direction around the loop, and saw a few others from afar.



    Near the bottom of the Madison Avenue slope below the Blue Col, we came across a sight I had not yet seen in my travels: a party of skiers waiting for professional rescue. One of the guys had accidentally aired into some rocks, breaking his arm near the elbow upon landing. Everyone was calm and the dude was stable, though unable to move much… not enough to self-extract through the cornice-laden route to the highway, he had deemed. The group had sent a couple friends out to seek help three hours prior to our meeting, leaving us without much room to assist besides lending a spare layer to the hurt guy and wishing everyone well. “Don’t need water? Food? Keeping your puffies dry? Ready to spend the night? Got drugs? Ok, good luck!” We continued up to the col and hung out in the sun, watching the shadow of the mountain slowly creep up to the party below, reluctant to become involved in the rescue yet feeling obliged to stick around a little longer. The helicopter came up the valley after a few minutes and we enjoyed our mountain-top peanut gallery seats to the main attraction, relieved. We started the northwestward descent when the hurt dude was hoisted into the chopper. GET TO DA CHOPPA!



    The cornice on Blue Col was large and in charge… actively peeling off and sending bus-sized pieces down into the spire chute. We jumped the moat at the reasonable end of the cornice and scooted down the chute to the car on just-starting-to-refreeze evencorn. We spent the rest of the evening at the camper, chowing fresh-cooked pizza (oven in the camper is key!), drinking beer, and scoping lines on Kangaroo ridge.







    Day two began a little earlier, with the snow nicely frozen from the clear night. We cruised to the low pass at the head of Early Winters creek and dropped southeast into the next basin. We climbed and skied a south-facing chute at the northern end of the drainage...








    ...then climbed back west to the high ridge North of Copper mountain.




    We dropped back north into some steep trees and glided back to the hairpin.






    More pizza at the camper charged the batteries for the final effort of the day: Blazing Saddles on Kangaroo. Back down to the hairpin we drove, then ascended the forested west-facing slopes below the chutes and climbed on up. Aenigma transitioned to booting in the narrows, while I stubbornly earned my Rando Commando Ranger Badge and skinned the whole way. Should’ve counted the fucking switchbacks.



    Views from on high were kickass:







    We descended the skier’s left couloir, again gliding back to the hairpin after a couple tight turns in the avy-apron pecker trees. I cooked curry in the camper and we laughed while recounting 10000 vert of high-quality corn from the past day and a half. Word!





    On Monday we awoke to a trace of snow on bulletproof refrozen… and we bailed back down to the lowlands. If it had snowed another 4 inches, we would have stayed to ski powder… but we had visions of big runs on Rainier for Tuesday. Next TR covers that one.
    Last edited by Norseman; 05-17-2016 at 01:14 AM.

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    Vanity Fair
    Posts
    2,724
    Great write up and pictures! I am always amazed at these "we skied corn late-ish in the day and it was totally fine" reports from the pnw. That maritime snowpack does seem to have its perks.
    Ich bitte dich nur, weck mich nicht.

  3. #3
    Join Date
    Sep 2009
    Location
    PNW -> MSO
    Posts
    8,278
    Totally. And thanks! Evening corn is my fave, since the high stuff freezes a little before the lower slopes, giving fast non-stick prime corn for huge descents... and because the corn layer is a little deeper after cooking all day, versus mid-morning. With an ice scrim on top, that shit is so fun to rip through!

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Nov 2007
    Location
    Eburg
    Posts
    13,239
    [thumb up] cool Lyall's Larch pics

  5. #5
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Location
    Before
    Posts
    28,761
    Oooooo....aahhhhhh...wowwwwww. Corn on the gloaming. Nice.
    Merde De Glace On the Freak When Ski
    >>>200 cm Black Bamboo Sidewalled DPS Lotus 120 : Best Skis Ever <<<

  6. #6
    Join Date
    Nov 2014
    Location
    northeast
    Posts
    5,968
    I gotta get up to the Cascades, damn! Nice pics!

  7. #7
    Join Date
    Jun 2006
    Location
    Couloirfornia
    Posts
    8,874
    Rad.
    Quote Originally Posted by Ernest_Hemingway View Post
    I realize there is not much hope for a bullfighting forum. I understand that most of you would prefer to discuss the ingredients of jacket fabrics than the ingredients of a brave man. I know nothing of the former. But the latter is made of courage, and skill, and grace in the presence of the possibility of death. If someone could make a jacket of those three things it would no doubt be the most popular and prized item in all of your closets.

  8. #8
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Seattle
    Posts
    33,935
    Nice. Broken elbow sounds painful way to spend a birthday.
    Quote Originally Posted by Downbound Train View Post
    And there will come a day when our ancestors look back...........

  9. #9
    Join Date
    Dec 2009
    Location
    Baltimore, MD
    Posts
    5,666
    Approved.




    No pictures of the van?
    Come on man...
    They think I do not know a buttload of crap about the Gospel, but I do.

  10. #10
    Join Date
    Mar 2008
    Posts
    3,173
    Thanks again for takin the time and effort to do the photos man, it bringeth me much joy to see this.
    "The skis just popped me up out of the snow and I went screaming down the hill on a high better than any heroin junkie." She Ra

  11. #11
    Join Date
    Dec 2007
    Location
    North of Seoul
    Posts
    192
    Beauty Spring mission.

  12. #12
    Join Date
    Dec 2003
    Location
    Sea Level
    Posts
    3,711
    Lovely photos. Hoping to get up these again this year.
    The trumpet scatters its awful sound Over the graves of all lands Summoning all before the throne

    Death and mankind shall be stunned When Nature arises To give account before the Judge

  13. #13
    Join Date
    Apr 2006
    Location
    Spokane/Schweitzer
    Posts
    6,892
    The cornice chunks on day one were YUGE! Well done...thanks!

  14. #14
    Join Date
    Aug 2007
    Location
    Bottom feeding
    Posts
    11,762
    cool
    Well maybe I'm the faggot America
    I'm not a part of a redneck agenda

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •