Re: Stevens Pass Weekend TR

[snoboy]

Scot'teryx said:

 

Since I had voluteered to help with a glacier climbing course this weekend, Chuck J and I headed up to Stevens Pass on Friday night, left our stuff outside the Mountaineers Lodge (A friend had the key who was coming later) and started out from the upper lot around 830pm. We reached the top of the Hogsback and then skied down towards the base of Tye and then skinned up to the top of the chair. It was snowing steadily the whole time, and we were happy to find one of the lift towers open where we warmed up and got ready to ski down.

 

We only skied down to the 1/2 way point inbetween upper and lower tye where we dug our snow cave for the remainder of the weekend, cached some gear, and then skied down in the darkness towards the Mountaineers Lodge. We arrived around 130am only to find our friends and a roaring fire. We went to sleep at 2am and awoke at 6am. We then ascended towards camp with the rest of the large group to our camp area. A couple more new inches of fresh snow got us excited, and since we did not have to setup camp, we went back up to the top of Tye and skied down in some great fluffy powder (about 6" fresh, all new tracks).

 

The remainder of the day was spent teaching and instructing. As they began the Z Pulley demonstration, we thought to take another tour before dark and head up to the top of the ridge on Tye and ascend the ridgeline towards Cowboy Mountain, a way I had not gone before, but we thought it might link up towards the top of 7th. We caught a cat track and wound up underneath the large Rock cirque on the peak just west of cowboy where we spotted 3 steep descent lines. 2 couloirs and one treeline couloir. We did not scope out the rock couloir lines enought to see if there was enough coverage so we descended the steep treeline that narrowed out and went at about 55 degress or so. From there we caught the line back towards the bottom of Tye and back to camp and then another quick run down from the top of tye after that. The coverage on the upper mountain was the best I have seen this year!

 

The next morning (430am) we found ourselves guiding out the groups that roped up for simulation, and made our way up the rock garden area towards the top of 7th, and thne the last steeper slopes to the top of Cowboy Mountain. Skinnning the last few hundred feet really sucked as it was 6 inches of fresh on a real icy base, so we were sliding all over the place. Trying to keep our skis on, we had to take them off for the final 15 feet to the summit ridgeline. At that point Chuck fell over while taking his skis off on this steep slope and slid for a good 30 feet before hitting a tree (lucky for him). After waiting for the remainder of the groups to arrive we got to make our descent from the summit ridge back to camp, which was the most enjoyable run I have ever had down off of the 7th chair!

 

Back at camp we packed up and headed down, all in all a great weekend of skiing..........

still wished I would have been at WA Pass though

 

Spray moved HERE to Spray...