claurel
New member
I stayed in the last couple weekends during the dry spell we've had here in the Pacific NW. But the winter weather was back with a vengeance this weekend, and I enjoyed two incredible days of riding.
Adrianne and I had planned to joing for a backcountry ski/board outing with the Mountaineers on Saturday. The original destination was an area near Crystal Mt. Ski Area, either Cement Basin or Bear Gap. But, we changed plans the night before because the avalanche danger was forecast to be high on Saturday, and Cement Basin is not a place you want to be when the snowpack is unstable. Yodelin is an abandoned ski area about a mile east of Stevens Pass. It was shut down in 1971 after a big avalanche wiped out some cabins near the base. However, the ski area itself is quite safe even when the avalanche danger is high: there are lots of trees to anchor the snow, the pitch is gentle, and there are no big wide open slopes.
When we arrived, it seemed that every other backcountry skier in Washington was seeking refuge there. There was plenty of snow to share though, and the conditions were incredible with run after run of pristine, knee-deep fluff. We made laps near the summit of the mountain, where the terrain was more interesting. Each run was short, maybe 600-700 feet vertical. I'd have liked longer runs, but I did get a lot of experience taking apart and reassembling my splitboard when switching between climbing and descending. The skiers in our group could still convert faster, but I made some progress . . .
I stayed in-bounds on Sunday, meeting up with Tony, Adrianne, and Chuck for a day of boarding at Crystal. It was total pow insanity. Tony and I managed three quick laps on High Campbell (the lift was purchased from Yodelin after they shut down), with minimum knee-deep snow and just a few tracks on the first run. The lift line were getting longer fast and the obvious lines were cut up pretty quickly. We met up with Chuck and Adrianne for some fun on Exterminator. There was plenty of untracked in the area bordering Memorial Forest. I had to stop a few times when I threw up so much snow that I couldn't see the trees anymore--not so much face shots as a snowblower in the face. In spots, the snow was well above my waist. In the lift lines, people were talking about an avalanche fatality that occurred on Saturday in an area just out of bounds. Yikes. It made me very glad that we had ditched our plans to snowboard the Crystal backcountry and gone to Yodelin instead. Patrol managed to open the South Backcountry in the afternoon. Our second to the last run of the day was Silver Basin. The hike up to Silver King was harder than usual, because my legs were tired from all the climbing the day before. But I'll happily suffer for such an incredible run down from the top--a cornice drop onto deep snow, then face shots all the way down to the bottom of the basin. I finished the day with another line on Exterminator, but my legs were too thrashed to get the most out of it. Epic day. Lots of people are counting this weekend among their best in-bounds days ever: http://www.nwsr.com/reports/CrystalMountain.shtml
--Chris
Adrianne and I had planned to joing for a backcountry ski/board outing with the Mountaineers on Saturday. The original destination was an area near Crystal Mt. Ski Area, either Cement Basin or Bear Gap. But, we changed plans the night before because the avalanche danger was forecast to be high on Saturday, and Cement Basin is not a place you want to be when the snowpack is unstable. Yodelin is an abandoned ski area about a mile east of Stevens Pass. It was shut down in 1971 after a big avalanche wiped out some cabins near the base. However, the ski area itself is quite safe even when the avalanche danger is high: there are lots of trees to anchor the snow, the pitch is gentle, and there are no big wide open slopes.
When we arrived, it seemed that every other backcountry skier in Washington was seeking refuge there. There was plenty of snow to share though, and the conditions were incredible with run after run of pristine, knee-deep fluff. We made laps near the summit of the mountain, where the terrain was more interesting. Each run was short, maybe 600-700 feet vertical. I'd have liked longer runs, but I did get a lot of experience taking apart and reassembling my splitboard when switching between climbing and descending. The skiers in our group could still convert faster, but I made some progress . . .
I stayed in-bounds on Sunday, meeting up with Tony, Adrianne, and Chuck for a day of boarding at Crystal. It was total pow insanity. Tony and I managed three quick laps on High Campbell (the lift was purchased from Yodelin after they shut down), with minimum knee-deep snow and just a few tracks on the first run. The lift line were getting longer fast and the obvious lines were cut up pretty quickly. We met up with Chuck and Adrianne for some fun on Exterminator. There was plenty of untracked in the area bordering Memorial Forest. I had to stop a few times when I threw up so much snow that I couldn't see the trees anymore--not so much face shots as a snowblower in the face. In spots, the snow was well above my waist. In the lift lines, people were talking about an avalanche fatality that occurred on Saturday in an area just out of bounds. Yikes. It made me very glad that we had ditched our plans to snowboard the Crystal backcountry and gone to Yodelin instead. Patrol managed to open the South Backcountry in the afternoon. Our second to the last run of the day was Silver Basin. The hike up to Silver King was harder than usual, because my legs were tired from all the climbing the day before. But I'll happily suffer for such an incredible run down from the top--a cornice drop onto deep snow, then face shots all the way down to the bottom of the basin. I finished the day with another line on Exterminator, but my legs were too thrashed to get the most out of it. Epic day. Lots of people are counting this weekend among their best in-bounds days ever: http://www.nwsr.com/reports/CrystalMountain.shtml
--Chris
