Wasatch Wandering - A Lil' Mill D Circ

this mornings avy report although considerable is certainly better than the high we've been having more often than not.. although if something goes it's likely to step down to the nasty surface hoar 3-5' down... unsurvivable.

"We have a dangerous, unmanageable situation in the backcountry. The danger is CONSIDERABLE with deep, unsurvivable avalanches breaking near the ground."

i thought i'd post this route because it was so much fun. 12 miles with 6,578 feet of climbing. i started at spruces campground. i've been feeling safe heading up mill D north on my own lately. today i decided to explore desolation, but wanted some vert so i took the long way there.  this was a ski tour by all accounts, but holy shit did i get some sweet turns. the gps (iphone) died half way through so i had to manually add the second half of the route to everytrail.com.  you can tell because it starts in the middle.  but with google terrain i thought it was cool visual.  it might help to click the link as the embedded version doesn't always render the terrain.

Mill D - Desolation Circ

starting up mill d north i skinned up reynolds peak and skied down the NE ridge to dog lake as you can see in the photo below.

the route then heads up little water peak.  i skied the NW face in the birch tress down into upper big water. this slope has yet to disappoint.  back up lil' water and along what i think is the powder park ridge (pictured below).

powder park just wasn't steep enough to drop in.  i skinned along scott's bowl across the red lover's ridge that i'm familiar with from running and mtn biking, then finally skinned up to jupiter peak.  the top of jupiter is just a few hundred feet above a park city lift.  so i was joined by some boot packers looking for powder.  on the way up there was a solo guy skiing the west facing slope that drops down to desolation lake.  it's lightly treed with a perfect pitch.  however seeing someone drop in alone i said "don't make me come down there and search for you".  i then had another 10 minutes of skinning to decide that i would in fact ski the same line.  probably not my best idea, but it was mostly treed, kinda safe and incredible nonetheless.  i then hightailed it out of the desolation lake death trap real quick like.  back up the deso ridge (red pictured below) and out to the big avy slope from jan 24th. 

i however dropped west averting the rocks and into the trees (green line above). this was a bit scetch being alone and having never been there.. it's a knife ridge.  i had scouted it from across the drainage many times and it looked like there was a safe route to trees from the rocky ridge.  it wasn't too bad.  through the trees and then up leanord's peak and over to what i think they call swingset for the final ski down to mill d and the spruces campground parking lot.

the day was awesome.  although my black diamond skins conspired to stop me literally in my track, i managed this route in 5hr 15mins. i certainly wasn't charging, but i wasn't sitting around either... a nice cruiser pace.  it was a beautiful sunny day and there is no place i would have rather been.  i'm decidedly not fast by any standards and certainly not by wasatch standards but i'm getting there.  6,500 feet of gain is a good day, however next time i'll try to bump that up a bit... but first the little business of orcas island 50km.  meissner has been talking smack for the last month!!

Backcountry.com's Gear Lists

sunday i was having a conversation with my buddy steve as we skinned into the crystal mountain backcountry. we are both admitted gear junkies and i was telling him exactly what mountain hardwear athlete / backcountry.com pro skier andrew mclean used for gear.  i've had a lot of trouble finding the right ski boot and i noted andrew's choice of the scarpa spirit 4.  steve had just brought a ton of slightly used gear to second ascent here in seattle and said "if i had these gear lists a few years ago i wouldn't have just sold $400 in used gear to second ascent".  using the pro's gear lists and the amazingly relevant reviews on backcountry.com is the only way to go when deciding on big ticket items that can make or break you trip into the backcountry.

andrew mclean's wasatch backcountry skiing gear list

• my cascade backcountry skiing gear list 
• my winter trail running gear list

13 Hours of Enchantment

there are a lot of places in washington i have yet to explore. when i got the email from mark for a massive day in the enchantments my heart raced. anyone who has been just gushes about how amazing of a place it is. i wasn't sure i could make it happen. my hip was sore after getting an injection for an mri and my foot was in a bad place. however after agreeing on email the train was unstoppable. the friday 2:15am departure came so fast i didn't have time to bail.

"Like paths in a fairy tale, the two trails to the Enchantments lead to beauty and magic, but the ways are challenging and can be dangerous."

the skin approach to the enchantment lakes was spars as you can see in the video. we climbed to colchuck lake and up aasgard pass. dragontail peak was an impressive and amazing site and my enchantment began there. had the group had a bit more energy we would have skiied the mighty dragontail - next time. from the pass we skinned out to the lakes fully expecting to see a heard of unicorns or a leprican. it's just that type of place. we then retraced our route back to the car for a 13hr 24mins endevour. it was an amazing 16 miles and 5,879ft on skis. thanks mark and todd for the good times!




mark these words - i will return to run the enchantments.. many many times (here are someone's photos of doing just that).

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meet the backcountry.com pro team

A Failed Attempt to Ski Mount Rainier

all last week i kept my eye on the weather forecast for mount rainier. we had planned to summit and ski the mighty beast in one shot. car to summit and back on skis. 5,400 feet to 10,410 feet. years ago i summited in a 17hr non stop push to the summit and back sans skis with my adventure racing teammates on DART-nuun.

we left the car at 11:30pm. 4hrs of skinning in the dark while weathering 60 mph winds with likely 80mph gusts was tough. it was by far the hardest trip i've ever had to camp muir, which had become a simple and mundane trip to me at this point. turn the lights out and the fan on high and things get interesting. of the 10-15 teams on the mountain only one attempted to climb past camp muir. they made it to 12,000ft and returned. the weather was insane, they were smart to turn around.

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Skiing Kendall Peak West Flank - April 14, 2009

DP_KendallWestFlank at EveryTrail

really surprised to get knee deep light and fluffy today... it's the middle of april! compression test didn't break a consolidated slab. neither did an extended column test. we got a 5:45am start to our skin so later in the day i'm sure the avy danger increased.

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Spring Has Come to Snoqualmie & Mount Catherine

i've been playing with the iphone gps apps. why pay another $300 when i have one in my pack anyway? today's tour was the first test for the MotionX ($2.99) iphone application. the software is better than any gps i've ever used or seen. it tracked my route pretty well except when i was in thick trees, and it has us going down the south side of catherine a few hundred feet, which we did not do. i think it would be great with the exception of the iphone battery. when using the gps full time it dies quickly. i'd say it lasted 4-4.5hrs in the cold during today's backcountry ski tour. i am a map and compass guy. so when i thought about what i need from a gps it was just two things.

1) utm coordinates for the times when i feel like i need to cross reference on an actual paper map
2) waypoints for just in case situations like white outs

MotionX passed these two with flying colors and then some. i've even been uploading my gps files to Everytrail.com as you can see below. it's a pretty cool way to share the visual of the trip. you can even add geotagged photos to the map. which i've done.

as for the iphone battery issue i think i'll track the first 1/2 of my trips with the iphone, then shut it down or put it into airplane mode for the rest. that way i get a gps file of our route and have enough battery for utm reading and the emergency waypoint.

Mt Catherine 4.5.09

Commonwealth Creek and Kendall Ridge Snow Conditions Today

i ran into a blog reader who recognized me and snapped a photo of us - thanks mark!
if your a backcountry skier in the pacnw you know turns all year (TAY) is an amazing resource. there is nothing better than seeing a trip report from the day before for the same area you plan to ski. well one thing would be better... to see actual video footage of it. it's not great, but it's a start.

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Kendall Trees Redux

again the avy report sent us into the trees. copson, kurt and ellen joined me today. lots of wind affected snow on the kendall ridge made us super cautious to start out, but a pit and many ski cuts later and we saw nothing to be scared of.

and again... to the trees!

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High Above 4,000 Feet

when the avy report says "high above 4,000 ft" we ski trees. copson and i ran into rvg, hayes and erin in the parking lot so we joined forces. rvg then lead us up the most aggressive route to the kendall ridge possible. we skinned (and some boot packed) up 50+ degree crusty slopes. you were either on point with the kick turn or you were going for a long unpleasant ride. i loved every minute of it. i reckon it was a great chance to see a new part of the kendall ridge.




we found crust down low, pow pow up high and good times all around. it felt bomber but i dug a pit anyway and found STM Q3. nothing moved slid or whomphed all day. the avy report said high because of the eminent storm and wind. they were late, but by the time we left it was really coming down. i bet tomorrow will really be high avy danger. and now - the feature presentation...

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Hyak Dawn Patrol

skinning up hyak under the dead lifts. you might remember hyak from the 300 foot wide avalanche/landslide that happened during our january warming.
snoqualmie got 15 inches of fresh so we decided a dawn patrol was in order. ellen and copson joined me, fraser didn't. as we got to the lot hopes were high until we started skinning. there was a somewhat nasty crust on top, not a death crust mind you, but certainly enough to squash the dreams i had as i sleep drove to ellen's house at 4:45am. someone mentioned they thought the snow would be better once we got to the top. i agreed verbally, but doubted it. however the top 500 feet was better and the skiing was really fun. with the inversion and the sun it was a perfect morning. i'm grateful i have friends that are willing to dawn headlampsand battle sleep monsters for 2,000 ft by 8:30 am.

after posting a couple of these photos on facebook i received the following question.

"Holy crap, where was this and where do you live that you can so quickly pop out for a quick ski?"

my response:

"i live in seattle. snoqualmie pass is 45 mins away. woke up at 4:30am, started skinning uphill in the dark and skiing downhill with the sunrise. my buddy was at his microsoft desk by 9:30am after 2,000ft of skiing and a coffee stop on the way home.

it's possible.. you just gotta want it."

ellen and steve - run 3

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my new favorite ski jacket - the mtn hardware synchro

Skiing the East Summit of Snoqualmie Mountain

scratchy and crusty out there today but still better than cleaning the house or sitting on the couch.


law dawgs todd and mark, as well as my bc staple steve copson and i set out with the objective of skiing the 40+ degree crooked couloir off snoqualmie mountain. with no real beta on the couloir ther was a very real chance we would have had to rappel out of the couloir.. making it extra bad ass of course. the sun made a short appearance but by the time we got to the summit it was full on white out blizzard at 6,200 feet. because we were a mere 500 feet from the top of the couloir we forged on. navigating by brale and hopeful not fall off a cliff or cornice. it was only a few minutes until it became obvious that proceeding would be foolhardy. we simple couldn't tell what we were skiing into. so we skied down from the summit the way we climbed and left the crooked couloir for another day.


the skin up phantom
around cave ridge it got steep and crusty
mark is pointing at the final pitch to the summit. it's right in front of him, we just can't see it.
i'm an artist

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my gear... get some!

my new favorite ski jacket - the mtn hardware synchro

Comet Falls Tour - Mount Rainier

the washington backcountry is a train wreck. nasty conditions up at mount rainier on sunday kept our group of mountaineer's ski leaders from our goal of skiing van trump park. it was a good exploration ski tour however. i got to practice some great survival skiing on 45 degree, pocked, icy slopes while the rest of the crew took their skis off and walked down.. well except for chloe. she rips. the area is beautiful and comet falls was pretty sweet. we had to cross a handful of steep avy slopes however, making this a no go with any real avy conditions.

(see if you can pick out the photos taken with the iPhone and those taken by the pro - mike warren)

we crossed some avy slopes

mike skinning up some steep slopes

through the woods, icy and dirty (how i like my women)

sweet bridge crossing
at least the sun was out