kevino

Right on Josh. I'm just happy to have enjoyed the sunshine in the mountains! Glad you got out too.

Trip: Eldorado - Ski of East Ridge Date: 6/22/2011 Trip Report: A little over 24 hours after wrapping up my skiing in the enchantments I found myself loading up all my gear again - heading up to Eldorado Pk. I was feeling lazy, so I didn't leave my truck till about 530ish and arrived at the ridge above the glacier at 830. I bivied on the ridge in a huge snow shelter that some one dug. I awoke early to watch the sunrise. I took my time summiting and ended up waiting close to two hours on the summit waiting for the snow to soften. I clicked into my skis on the summit and enjoyed mostly good corn all the way down to the tree/snowline in the talus field. Sunset on Glacier A light breeze made for some cool clouds Gaining the top of the eldo glacier in perfect time to watch the sunrise The pink sunrise illuminating my ski descent Forbidden Windy and chilly summit at 0730 Baker My faint ski tracks on the ridge top My turns between the bootpack and the exposed glacier One last look back at my descent back onto the glacier I left the summit at 0930 and was back at my truck by 1200. Awesome! Gear Notes: Ski crampons and whippet Approach Notes: A few detours around some tree fall in the woods. Snow starts around the middle of the second talus field. The gullys that connect the ridge to the eldo glacier have suprisingly small snow bridges right now.

Thanks John. Good info, I'll try that tomorrow. I think I'm up to 12 days this month of skiing. And yes, I was tempted to make duct tape glasses but I figured with how sunny it was forecasted to be have glasses would be worth the effort. My legs beg to differ though..

Pretty much. The top probably two inches were soft. However it was hard to get in a real groove due to the bootprints/rockfall runnels/wetslide/glissade debry. I still had fun!

Trip: Enchantments Ski - Little Annapurna and Drangontail Date: 6/20/2011 Trip Report: Nothing mind blowing here - just a nice day of solo spring skiing. The day started out rough: slept through my alarm, back was killing me and two miles into the hike I realized I left my sunglasses in the car! After I left my skis/pack on the trail and ran back to my truck and then back to my stuff, the day finally got rolling. Stuart was beaming red by the time I got to the junction Cashmere from assgard I ended up booting up assgard pass due to the bullet hard snow. Objective #1: I claimed it Cool lighting on the way up to dragontail summit of dtail to the lake = ~3300 vf colchuck lake thawing out upper enchantments are quite snowy - but the rock is dry and warm *(this is a complete guess) Approach Notes: no snow until the lake. from there moron hikers have boot packs going in every which direction.

Unless the FS cleared it, there was a rather large debry full avalanche about 1/2 mile before the TH. Just as a heads up.

Awesome. By the way, really enjoying your skiing TR's and photos. Thanks!

Glad me and david's TR could inspire you guys. It is an awesome route for sure.

So does this include color enhancments?

Sounds like you are getting into some hard core mountain walking these days. Did you end up doing that ski job at mission ridge this past winter?

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The worst would be a herd of goats infected with ticks be ridden by woody goomsba trundling rocks, which in turn start a gargantuan mudslides that carries a boatload of rattle snakes and boulders down to the road! top that.

Pearly gates and snow creek wall are a regular training center for mountain goats before they take their trundling and attacking skills to the alpine area. Best to check with their coach about their practice schedule before heading out to those areas.

Just thought I'd bump this up... Probably up to 15+ days of touring now since I purchased them in mid april. Used them for long days of touring, tight/steep descents, booting up steep snow, scrambling rock, etc Still have been very pleased with their performance. I have one tight spot that hopefully I can get punched out. My everyday ski with 186 cm and 102 mm underfoot with vertical ST's. They have worked well. Recently I have been using the TLT5's to drive my bigger skis (193 cm and 115 mm underfoot) with FFR+ and have been pleased with the skiing.

Looking forward to the pictures... Any word when they are going to open the gate to the TH?

Some of the routes were discussed in the Central WA sub section of the forum. Somewhere Andy Fitz made a list of new climbs. I'll see if I can't find it later... Edit: Found the post with the cross link to the info: http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/884772/Re_Tieton_info_on_crag_left_of#Post884772 it seems that the edgeworks site no longer has a forum?

In the morning the snow was firm enough to provide good booting, so kept our skis on our packs until about 5200 ft. On the way down we skied till about where the trail gains the ridge - if that makes sense. We clicked out of our skis and walked about 15 mins back to my truck. ' Hope that helps. Round trip time was just under 3.5 hours.

Trip: Teanaway - Esmerlda Basin and Iron Pk Date: 5/21/2011 Trip Report: Good friends + skiing in the teanaway = great weekend. Living the High Life Weather moving in Chrissy making her first backcountry turns! Scott looking for a line we saw on the way up... Found it! Day 2...better weather Clouds rolling in as we reach the top Me getting some nice turns on the upper face Looking back at the upper face...you can kind of see our tracks Then we ran out of snow Gear Notes: hardshell Approach Notes: In my truck we easily made it to the Iron Pk TH. I'm sure in a day or two one will be able to drive to the large avalanche blocking the rd about 1 mile from the Esmerlda Basin TH

Thanks man. Lots of good lines to be skied. Hopefully the interview went well for you...

Feck, Nailed down what dates for the ski in? Thanks.

Trip: Rainier - Muir > Nisqually Chutes -> Bridge Date: 5/19/2011 Trip Report: After finishing up my stretch of consecutive night shifts, I made plans to do some skiing on Rainier with Jessie. We left Paradise around 0930 and got to Muir around 1200. We ate some food, hung out with some people while we waited for the snow to soften in the chutes. It did. We had roughly a 7K foot descent down to the bridge. A five minute hitch hike got us back to the car at Paradise. Pictures to follow.... For some reason my camera was in B&W but I thought it looked kind of cool Making our way up Jessie going up with Adams in the background Easy skiing on the upper snowfield Jessie ripping down the chute..and our route to the bridge visible Looking back at our line...we skied directly above her backpack More corn turns

Move from OR to MT and try again in october. While that is true I can be nice too. Take up rock climbing in the mean time to learn the technical skills and try some steep snow and alpine ice routes to see if its really something you want to do. Its $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ investment.

Dave, are you busy with fire stuff still? John, it looked like you could see the SE face of South Ingalls. But yeah, that'd be something else, skiing a rock route!

Trip: Teanaway River Rd - Pt 6494 and Longs Pass Date: 5/10/2011 Trip Report: After my rock climbing bailed monday night I opted to head up the Teanaway River rd and see what I could do solo. Being lazy I didn't get too early of start, but good thing the road is only 20 minutes from ellensburg! Anyway, I parked about 3.5 miles short of the Esmeralda Basin TH. The first mile it was spotty coverage, then I was able to put on my skis and skin the rest of the way. There is a 100+ft avalanche over the road (with a fair amount of debris) so that'll take a while to melt. About 3-4 ft of snow at the TH. Being lazy (and out of shape), I topped out on Pt 6494, which is just a little bit south of Longs Pass. I then skied its NW face then climbed back up to Longs Pass. Then skied all way back to the TH and eventually back to my car. Incredibly nice day to be out! My sunburn proves it. Random photos to follow…. Late spring skinning problems: Avy over the road: Esmerlda Pk STUART! Anyone want to ski this next week? Thurs and friday? Rainier Ingalls Approach Notes: truck with clearance helps getting passed some washouts and snowbanks