More skiing!

Well there's more winter, isn't there?

One last trip in home territory before going back to work - into the Baker backcountry for a trip to Mt Ann, a place I haven't been since my second-ever glacier climb up the Fischer Chimneys on nearby Mt Shuksan in 2002. It looks very different in the winter to be sure! A mid-week day with not a lot of new snow meant we saw almost no one, and a bit of a crust from some sunshine meant the travel was easy. Nice.

Up and over the ski area, across some flats, up the flanks to the ridge of Mt Ann (avoiding the skin track set right under a huge cornice being warmed by the sun), and along to the summit, where we deemed the skiing too steep (telemark [v] : Finnish word meaning "ack, it's too steep!") and too icy to be fun, booted up to the top and enjoyed the view before sliding back down on our butts. The greater part of having fun is knowing when to call it.

The skiing down was a little crusty to be really enjoyable, but we made some nice arcing turns and enjoyed being out in the pristine snow and beautiful weather. Sunshine and warmth - it must be spring! The days are getting longer, and we're looking forward to the opportunity for some longer tours.

But for now, I'm off to Nepal, to lead the Everest Base Camp trek for Alpine. Work is great, but it does so get in the way... *grin*

Lizzie Creek Cabin

Well, Dave wanted to know how I was going to spin this particular trip, because the net result of two weeks in Canada was a whole lot of skinning, hard work, and being soggy, and not so much sunny powder skiing. Yes, it's true. You win some, you lose some.

We were psyched to have a nice long chunk of time off, and lots of terrain we had seen in print and on blogs. 8-to-12-hour approach, cozy little cabin, and tons of alpine terrain of varying aspects and steepness. Sweet!! We took a couple days to organize, pack, and position ourselves just outside Pemberton, BC, about 30 minutes north of Whistler, and parked at the trailhead for the evening after sampling some "Chinese Japanese Canadian Cuisine" at the local Centennial Cafe in town. Equipment, check. Intentions, check. In position, check.

Weather, not so much. We woke to steady rain and couldn't bring ourselves to start uphill, choosing instead to haunt the bakery and library in hopes of finding a region of better weather nearby in time or place. No luck! A powerful low pressure system was spinning warm fronts out in the Pacific that were riding right over all the coastal ranges. We went back to the trailhead prepared to start out wet. Sure enough, on and off showers gave way to the dreaded "snain," part rain, part snow, as we trudged up a logging road toward our destination valley. Lots of incredibly heavy snow hadn't been skied for some time, and the trailbreaking was astonishingly tiring.

8 hours in, we decided to call it for the day and built a snow shelter, half cave, half ski-tent, that served quite well since it wasn't stormy, just snowy. A much-needed rest, as we were still a little tired the next morning continuing up. Another 5 hours, directions that didn't quite match the terrain, and lots more heavy trailbreaking later, we reached the hut. Home sweet home!! Very cozy, and almost entirely covered with the 8-9 feet of snow on the ground and roof, it did have some wood stacked inside that let us finally get dry and warm. Whew! The continued snow and fog led us to spend the next day harvesting dead branches and trees to stock up the firewood supply for the next few days, and excavate an outhouse entrance from under the same huge snowpack.

Time to ski! There can be too much of a good thing, though, and we had it. So much snow that trailbreaking continued to be difficult, and enough clouds and snow to keep us from being able to see anything. All those beautiful mountains and valleys around us, and we can't even see them! The avalanche danger had our attention, too - it was warm and had been snowing continuously for several days. We turned back from an intended tour and took a couple of consolation runs on the slopes above the cabin. Could be fun snow, but soooo much work to use it! Fatigue and increasingly soggy precipitation made for an early afternoon.

Next day, a similar story as we broke trail up the same exact hillside, our previous track completely obscured by snow and wind. We had a few runs and still-dry layers when we called it a day - quite an improvement! The next morning was already day 6, and time to head out. Fortunately, the snow had finally consolidated enough to enable us to actually ski out (instead of breaking train again), and we made good time. We even saw the sun once!

If being all hard-core and outdoorsy requires fortitude and endurance, it also requires knowing when to actively avoid it! We ended up at a great place called The Hitching Post Motel, and highly recommend it to anyone heading north of Whistler. Super nice owners, some nicely renovated rooms, and a perfect kitchenette area to allow for breakfast in bed options. Much needed after six days of being cold and soggy! Slept in, checked out, and hung out in her laundomat to reorganize and regroup. The weather was improving, so we stayed close and drove up to Duffey Lake for two more days of skiing, moving back into truck-camping mode.

This time, the weather and snow cooperated beautifully! Others had set a skin track up before us, the snow was fluffy, and we actually got some sun. Ah, timing. A few more people there, not the complete solitude of a cabin 13 km in, but the backcountry of British Columbia is definitely big enough to accommodate. Lots of natural and triggered avalanches were coming down, and we were more than happy to observe from afar as they set off slides across the highway and then cleared debris from the road. By this time, we were pretty tired from only one day of rest in the last nine, so were grateful to head back home, only a 4-hour drive! So close, just across that border line.

I'm definitely hoping to go back to the cabin again, hopefully when the weather is a little more cooperative. Next time, it would be nice to get something more like this: http://richso.blogspot.com/2011/01/lizzie-creek-new-years.html Ah, well. (Oh, and if it looks like I was shooting in black-and-white, I wasn't, it was just grey out!)

Lots of snow!

Well, it's supposedly a La Nina weather pattern year, but while we're getting plenty of precipitation, and plenty of it as snow, the freezing level occasionally goes way up and drops some rain, too, so it's not shaping up to be quite as extraordinary as the record-setting winter of 1999.

Still lots of great snow, though! Some of it comes with good visibility, some of it does not. One of the first tours we did when I got back was up by Mt Baker in possibly the most complete whiteout I have ever experienced. We call it being in the ping pong ball - the light scatters and refracts from clouds and snow the same way, making it impossible to distinguish surface water crystals from suspended water droplets. You find yourself in a perfect visual sphere with no orientation, literally impossible to tell whether you're about to bump into a snowbank or have the snow end beneath your feet. Great snow, but hard to ski! Still good to be out, of course.

Next time out, a little better visibility, but we still needed some trees to steer by. So into the Swift Creek woods, just behind the Mt Baker ski area. The snow was amazing, knee deep until you got your telemark turn on... then it became waist deep as we crouched down mid-turn. Heavy enough to ski on top of, light enough to be really, really fun. Telemark is such fun. A little video of some low-angle lovin' - it doesn't have to be steep to be fun...

A few weeks in town, a little skiing and catching up with friends, and suddenly it's time to head up to Canada for a longer ski trip with Dave. There's certainly plenty of snow, so let's hope the weather cooperates, too!

And back again

But in the Northwest, winter has come early. There's plenty of snow to cover up most of the rocks, and plenty of motivation to get out: the dark time is upon us here in the Cascades, and we have to get out, because the alternative is to hibernate. And skiing is really much more fun.

As a side note, my frequent trips between Seattle and Bellingham often involve use of the train, a very pleasant 2-hour ride along the coast for around $29. But this time my skis were already in place, and a mid-day transit made much more sense, so I actually took Amtrak - on the bus. Yes, Amtrak has a fair amount of bus service, and it turns out to be quite pleasant and in duration, for only $20! The buses seem to be contracted private coaches, so they're more like bus travel should be. Highly recommended.

This time we headed up to the snow with a couple other skiers/snowboarders. Between the five of us we had all sorts of snow travel combinations, so the bigger-the-group-the-slower-the-travel rule kicked in. A couple miles of logging road, a little tree-dodging, up a couple avalanche chutes (appropriate precautions taken), and finally to the rounded top, Cascade peaks all around. Beautiful.

Of course, there's still the down, and we ended up skiing the last of the logging road in the dark (which is not recommended). The two dogs with us had worked much harder over the day, being without skis in unconsolidated snow, and were possibly happier than we to see the trucks when we finally reached them. As a climbing partner once said: Any day where no one gets hurt is a good day in the mountains.

Good to get one last dose of snow before heading south. As I write this (belatedly), it is currently dumping again in the Cascades. Two feet of forecast snow, followed by a warming trend and heavy rain. A recipe for unstable snow, and a good time to be in the Southern hemisphere...

SNOW!!!

Most people have probably heard by this point about how strong a La Nina winter this is supposed to be, and here in the Northwest, how cold and snowy that is supposed to make our mountains. It seemed to be coming true in September, when we got plenty of new snow on Mt Rainier, and it is continuing to show such a trend, with some significant snow above about 4000' in the North Cascades.

Coming back from the east, with three more days off before returning to work, we did a little cycling and indoor climbing as the weather turned cold and rainy, then went to check out the mountains, hoping that the rain had indeed been good snow up high, as rumored.

Indeed. Hiking up to Skyline Ridge, close to Mt Baker, we topped out at 5800' and, lo and behold, there was about 18" of rained-on consolidated base, with 2-3" of new, smooth, fluffy snow on top, just waiting for us to ski it. Four skiers and boarders were there just ahead of us, but their tracks helped provide some depth perception in the otherwise featureless white surface the snow becomes in clouded conditions.

The inevitable first-of-the-season gear shakedown meant that I forgot mine and was using Dave's skins while he tried his new short "kicker" skins that don't cover the whole ski, just the part underfoot. They worked pretty well and he patiently took a less-steep path to climb back up after each run. Down the steeper part, across a bench, and down to the thicker trees. Skins on, hike up, and repeat. Good skiing in November, who'd have thunk it?

A bit of a storm is moving through this weekend, with very cold temperatures, including a good chance of snow in the city. Really? In November? Sounds like it's time to wax the skis and put the chains in the car. Winter, here we come!

Vantage and Baker

So this might not be the kind of climbing that inspires dramatic posts. It was not hard, it was not impressive. It wasn't something new or different, in fact I think I've climbed most of what we did before. But it has been some time for me and Mary and Erin, both since we climbed individually and since we got to play together. Which means... things got a little ridiculous.

The three of us have climbed Rainier in tiaras, and basically find joint ventures to be an excuse to indulge our inner 12-year-olds. Or younger in this case - we got silly stretchy bracelets and temporary tattoos and just enjoyed a sunny weekend in the desert of Eastern Washington with the excuse of doing some rock climbing. Really, what more do you need? Our original plan had been to climb Mt Baker with a couple other folks, but the forecast was for rain, and we found out later that's exactly what it did - boy was it nice to be in the hot and dry! It had been a pretty crappy spring here in the Northwest so far.

A week later, the switch for summer flipped here, and it was beautiful everywhere. So I did go to Mt Baker, but this time with skis. Dave and two of his friends and I went up to ski the Squak Glacier - an ancient native name for "glacier without big crevasses". The snowline was finally rising, so we had to cross the lowland rivers and hike up to the snow. From there it was a mellow day, just skiing up as high as we wanted and then making big turns down the vast canvas of the unbroken snow. Sweet!! More weather like this, please!

Working?

OK, so I had a little time off, and it was (of course) promptly filled with those day-to-day things that most people take for granted, but which are impossible to do while on the hill. Catching up on life stuff, and a little fun thrown in for good measure: manage the email (obviously), sleep, do laundry, spend time with boyfriend/partner Dave, go skiing, work one Rainier climb, get a haircut, do a few RAMROD training rides, catch up with a few friends in town...

There's always plenty to do, but as with all lives, it becomes part of the day-to-day, strange as that may sound. After the chaos of the RAAM, it was nice to have my time back for a little while.

More snow!!

Funny - I haven't been in Seattle this much in a while, though in reality I haven't been in Seattle much this time either. A lot of skiing, including a road trip with Dave up to Canada - we took three days to explore the Coquihala area, about an hour northeast of Hope, BC.

It's still not a great snow season in the Northwest, but it was really fun to explore a new area and see some new mountains. There were many discussions about how much terrain is nearby, just over the border in Canada, and in many cases closer (to Bellingham) for climbing and skiing than driving south to Rainier or deep into the North Cascades. Funny how our maps show blank space above our border, and we somehow internalize that and forget to go check it out!

One thing you have to love about Canada - they expect people to be out there. Unlike most places in the US, we were allowed to camp out at a rest area in the mountains (or at least, weren't chased off). Dave's truck provided a good base camp, and with bathrooms and a little heated picnic room mere meters away, what more could you ask for? He's got a great system worked out for cooking, storage etc, and for a low-budget trip, it was pretty posh. A great way to get out there!

But now it's off to India, where it's hot and humid and has way more people than Canada. Plans changed suddenly a little bit ago, and instead of working with the government climbing institute in India, I'll be working for Alpine Ascents on the Everest Base Camp trek and Island Peak climb in Nepal. An opportunity I'm very excited about! But it does throw my India plans into chaos. Too much gear to bring for skiing, perfectly wrong timing to work with the climbing institute, and too early in the season to climb in the Himalaya here. So I'll basically just be taking up time here until it's time to go to Nepal. A little biking in Bangalore, perhaps some down time in Ooty's cooler hill station, and maybe, just maybe, I'll actually go see the Taj Mahal this time! Or not - we'll see...

Snow!!!

Two whole weeks in Seattle! It's been a warm winter, but the dedicated skier can sniff out some good turns - sun-softened snow on those warm days, powder that's been blown into a gully and hidden from the sun's warmth, that secret area that no one knows about.

I've been spending a lot of time with Dave while here in Seattle/Bellingham, and he thankfully provides the motivation that I lack, post-expedition, to actually gear up and get out. But once I'm out, I love being in the mountains - the Northwest is so beautiful, and so quiet, in the backcountry.

We went on a short tour by the Mt Baker ski area on Sunday, and hiked up past some snowboarders who had smoothed out a jump for the afternoon's entertainment. It's been a few years since I was at Alta, but remember the feeling of being intentionally airborne on skis. As we watched, one of them offered to let us jump in, but didn't expect me to actually start taking off my pack! The first attempt merely demonstrated that the launch wasn't what I expected, but the second attempt resulted in a good launch, if slightly less-successful landing. Dave, who is still learning to telemark, just enjoyed the show with a good laugh. I can't upload videos here, but if you're on Facebook, check it out there.

A little more skiing this weekend before heading to India again, and to Nepal - I'll be leading Alpine's treks to Everest Base Camp and up Island Peak. Lots to write about, I'm sure!

Solang

...is a beautiful mountain retreat from the dust of Delhi, just outside the resort town of Manali. At 8500', it accesses peaks to 14,000' from the front door (that's a long day hike, but lots of ski turns!), and higher stuff with a few days' travel. Despite the low snow year there was plenty of good skiing, you just had to hike for it. And the mountain air has (almost) finally kicked the last of the lingering cough. Whew!

After a dayhike or two to acclimatize, Lin, Larry and I lugged our own gear up for a camping/skiing trip on Mt Patalsu. We set up camp in a beautiful a ski-in, ski-out location at 10,500' on dry leaves right next to the snow - nice to be fully out of civilization. Three days of skiing sun-softened spring snow tired out Balu the now-Delhi-based dog. She hasn't seen snow for a while!

The next trip was fully supported - carrying heavy loads is fine, but if someone else can do it... Four porters and a guide (Rinku) joined us for another 3-day camp on Brigu Peak, this time with a big tent and fresh veggies, dinner and tea provided. A rolling pin for the chapatti flatbread, iron handtool for digging platforms - these guys don't mess around. And they didn't use the backpack's shoulder straps - instead wrapped a wide strap around Lin's pack and carried it traditionally on their heads!

Lin and Larry headed back to Delhi while I stayed for a couple more days of skiing and socializing with new and old friends there. Sunil and Ravi and Khem and I skied/boarded Gulaba peak, up one of the most harrowing roads I've survived (and there are a lot here!), complete with one-hour delay because a frontloader was, well, reconstructing the road. It took a couple tries, but the Gypsy truck did make it out... A beautiful day with great people.

A mad dash to the bus following lunch with the same folks, and a trust-requiring 13-hour bus later, I landed back in Delhi in that dim orange sunrise that comes from so much dust in the air. Funny to stuff my skis in the back of an auto-rickshaw here...

Manali/Solang is growing on me, and I might have to find a way to spend more time there. I'm looking forward to skiing next winter, hopefully with more snow!

Alta warmup

Off to Alta to visit my friend Dan (going big in the picture) and get a little loading dose of winter. I left Seattle just ahead of an incoming storm, and sure enough it followed me to Utah for a nice 12" powder day. Finally got to get on my new powder skis (Atomic Janek boards), and was pleasantly surprised by how well my legs remembered their turns. Tired, definitely, but being acclimatized from the big hill helped a lot here at nine thousand feet.

Unfortunately, I had a little run in with a tree and managed to at least crack a rib - I can hear some sounds that ribs don't normally make. Went backcountry the next day anyway, which was not a good idea, but it was definitely fun. Mmm... deep powder...

Taking today off in a belated attempt to take care of myself - I'm supposed to be working in the Wallowas in two days! Hmm. It's snowing again at the moment - it's nice to be back in the winter season after some time away. Always an adventure.