philfort

There's a big difference between ferrying in a few loads of climbers/skiers, and constant use of a chopper all day long for heli-skiing. I dunno - maybe there's nothing stopping Mike from offering heli-skiing too :-)

I figured climbers would be more upset than skiers at having a classic wilderness climbing destination used for a profit-making venture.

A friend forwarded me this information. Knight Inlet Heli Sports has apparently applied for a heli ski permit on Mt Waddington. http://www2.lwbc.bc.ca/ApplicationPosting/viewpost.jsp?PostID=7262 (If you look at the "site specific" map that Waddington is right in the middle of "zone 2"). If you want to make your opinion known on this matter, the person reviewing the case is: Diane Tetarenko Manager, Adventure Tourism Ministry of Tourism, Sports and the Arts Suite 142 - 2080A Labieux Road Nanaimo, BC V9T 6J9 Does anyone else have any info on this?

Pretty sure it's dragontail

This is a sweet picture:

Nice! Always thought that area would be a nice place to visit in winter... It's definitely been skied before (maybe you mean in winter?)... there are a couple entries for it on lowell's ski mountaineering history site. I skied it in summer (summit might have been melted out, I forget) a while back and we saw other ski tracks.

Looks larch-y...

Good skiing, perhaps! Scurlock has a winter photo of it somewhere, it holds snow: http://pbase.com/nolock

There's one at Trader Joes called "Optimum Power" Flax or something like that. Bland blue box. It has flax and a few blueberries. Twigs, flakes and blueberries. It sure looks like it's healthy, but it tastes great. Oh look at that.... 5 stars on amazon! Fruity Cheerios are on sale at QFC right now!

Even if you put in the trail the week before? Siege tactics!!

neat pic!

How close can you drive to Bedal Ck trailhead?

It's about time there were some cool climb TRs from this high pressure window! Nice work...

I would not wish snowshoes on my worse enemy for the descent from Silver Star creek to Early Winters CG. Even if you don't ski, find some skis and use them on the road at least... the one time I did it, the 8 mile deproach was a pleasant half hour glide on skis... as opposed to the 3 hour death march it would be on snowshoes.

On Saturday near Stevens Pass, we saw lots of naturals (some quite large, but relatively thin). The first one we set off I triggered from below - completely suprised, my brain was turned off because I didn't seem to be in avy terrain - except there was a short 37 degree roll above and to the side of me where the trees started. I heard the woomph, and said something like "yikes" in response to the creepy sound. Then my friend told me to look above me, where I saw the slope had fractured about a foot deep and debris was coming down. It wasn't massive enough to reach me on the flatter terrain though. We set off tons of small ones during the day, and another not so small one in the forest, whose debris piled up to my shoulders. On pretty much anything over 30-35 degrees you would trigger a slab. This was down well below treeline too, and on all aspects. Definitely a day where you had to change your normal mindset on what is safe and what is not. I would say conditions were "natual avalanches probable, human-triggered avalanches certain" --> considerable or high. Forecast was for moderate danger at our elevation (~4000-5000ft).

Looks like Hidden Lake Peak from Hwy 20, or Cascade River road. Or maybe Snowking?

Ah yeah, I know the thing you're talking about now.

There's snow at the trailhead, but not much (a foot maybe). Couple feet by 3000ft, then much more.

I know of at least 3 groups who skied it within a few week period last winter, but yeah, I suspect it doesn't see much traffic. We skied it last weekend, and it was in pretty good shape. Not sure what other line you are talking about... there's at least one short steep chute coming off of the NE ridge of Silver (only 400ft high though).

Much of the decent and well-used ski track up the SW slope of Snoqualmie had been trashed by snowshoers, on the morning of Dec 6th. Once above the forest, the snowshoe tracks headed off towards the notch that drops you below the NW face of Snoqualmie, almost as if someone was going to climb NY gully :-) A+ for effort and getting out, but B- for smashing skin tracks (if it was you). The tree bombs had done their part too though... There were some nice-looking long ice lines on the far far east end of the NW face of Snoqualmie (2 couloirs over from the Slot). Only 50% "in", but it looked like something forms there anyway.

Another Snoqualmie Pass gem...

That's the sound of the rockets, actually...

... more like rocket-skis. Very cool, but would be even cooler without the rocket assist.

It sure was when I drove through Issaquah eastbound Tuesday morning @5:30am... for a few miles I-90 was a sheet of ice... Someone in an SUV off to the side of the road decided to pull back into the highway right as I was coming along, and immediately went perpendicular to the lanes (clearly still in 2wd), slid across the highway, and finally ended up facing towards me in my lane (which luckily I was able to get out of before smashing into her).

I didn't notice any ice on the N face of Colfax on Saturday, but I might have been focused on the skiing gnar, rather than ice climbing gnar... climbnsparky: I've found fun ice bouldering even with up to a foot of snow in the seracs, but deeper than that and it starts getting a little sketchy. Should rain up to the serac-bouldering elevation this week/weekend though, that might clear off the new snow...