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[TR] Arowhead Peak- Usual 1/25/2004


Dave_Schuldt

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Climb: Arowhead Peak-Usual

 

Date of Climb: 1/25/2004

 

Trip Report:

ken "treeshredder" 4ord and I ripped it today. Did 3 runs off the south side towards White Pine Creek. Great glade skiiing. Didn't go all the way down to the creek because the trees got thicker. Will do some more exploring soon.

 

Gear Notes:

Rando skies and split board.

 

Approach Notes:

skied up logging road.

Edited by Dave_Schuldt
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Yeah man, that was a killer day. When Dave and I were first making plans to get out and ride he mentioned leaving Seatlle at 6. In the back of my head I was thinking that was way to early, but looking back now if we have been at the parking at 6 and if I had brought a headlamp we could have gotten in a couple of more runs. It was a stellar day, ocassionally clearing enough to give us some views of some mountain I had not seen before. It was such a rocking day of untracked powder, nice temps, and good company, don't get much better than that. Dave where are those damn pictures???

 

Until next time bigdrink.giffruit.gifbigdrink.giffruit.gifbigdrink.gif

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I was up there with 3 others, since we left Seattle at 6 a.m. we were the first ones to arrive. Our group broke trail well into the forest when another group of 4 caught up and 2 more behind them. Was that you guys?

 

None of us had been there before so we when too far south into the woods before hitting the ridge. Next trip will be more efficient.

 

Sounds like snow was better on the White Pine side. The open glade off the summit on the west side had a wind crust, but with aggressive skiing was pretty nice. We ended up doing laps on the middle glade. Good day.

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Well here is some photos from that stellar day, thanks to Dave and his camera.

 

This first one is our approach, I guess there is a better way oh well next time. To the right of the ridge the south side of Arrowhead. We squeezed in 3 run on that. Finished up the day on the left side of the ridge.

3794approach-med.jpg

 

Three other guys we saw on the mountain that day. Russ was that you guys?

37943others-med.jpg

 

One of them ripping a fine line, in good form.

37941of3-med.jpg

 

Me having a blast ripping down the mountain.

3794Riding-med.jpg

 

Me getting blasted, gawd you gotta to love powder. It was deep in places.

3794BuriedBut_Riding-med.jpg

 

Dave approaching the end of the south side ride we were hitting up.

3794Dave_in_the_trees-med.jpg

 

Here's to a stellar day bigdrink.gifbigdrink.gifbigdrink.gifbigdrink.gifbigdrink.gif

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Nice pic's, no that wasn't us. In hindsight I'd say we blew it. Since we were first one's up and a lot of people were showing up on the summit, we wanted to be the first to hit the west side glade. Fun ski, but not as good as the south slopes you guys did.

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I'm so jeoulous right now I can't even take it. I spent sunday driving back from Baker because it didn't snow up there Sat night and my friends didn't want to tour on Sunday. Wish I had been at Stevens Pass instead. Alpine K's pick of Jove Peak in the other thread TRing that day makes me drool. I made the wrong choice this weekend.

 

Nevermind what am I saying? Saturday was my best ski day of the season. But I'm still jeoulous of ya'll.

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I thought there was plenty of snow in the woods and out in the open. The first clearcut section could use more, but the conditions that they were in made for some great riding. I checked the conditions this morning, Stevens recieved 8 inches of wet somewhere inbetween 10 last night and 6 this morning. At 6 am the temps had finally dropped to freezing and they were predicting high winds and more snow. Last night at 8 I talked to a buddy up there and he said it was raining and around 40 to 45. With fresh snow falling today should have good coverage tomorrow, I imagine the avy danger will go up though because of wind loading.

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I don't mean to be a pain in the neck, but I'm wondering how much snowcover was there in the lower clearcut? 2 feet or 4 feet? How much at the start of the logging road? Is there much "base" at that elevation, or just a few feet of unconsolidated snow?

Edited by mattp
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It just looks good on the map, and Rainer Burgdorfer describes it as 2000+ ft. of fall-line skiing. It looks JUST like the west face on the map, long, steep, and open. You would have to walk back up the thing after skiing it however, which would make it a big day.

 

Edit: Looking at it again, it's not as steep as the west face.

Edited by E-rock
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Nason Ridge is a cool feature because it stands 4,000 feet above the valey next to it and has no close neighbors so it provides a wide view. It is sub-alpine, and has a slightly higher feel then many of the other Stevens Pass area peaks.

 

I haven't looked at the new (5 years old?) edition of Burgdorfer's book, but in the first edition he suggested Nason Ridge as a good ridge tour, but neglected to mention that there are several points where the crest is much more complex and or unfriendly than the map might suggest. From the East, it took, me three trips to find a reasonable way up Mount Mastiff, which requires a very steep traverse over to Lost Lake and then a climb up a bushy slope north from the lake, and then an avalanche-prone east facing slope to the summit. From the west, I know several parties who have tried to traverse from Rainy Pass and found it very unpleasant going in tight trees on steep side-hills. For the central part, I've been up both Howard and Rock Mountain several times and they are good day-trip objectives from Highway 2, but neither is straight-forward and there is a lot of work involved. The traverse between Howard and Rock Mountain will prove slightly complicated, I believe, and it may be necessary to drop fairly low around the SE ridge of a peak a half mile NE of Rock Mountain. I've also looked at the ridge from the air, and the north slope of Howard looks potentially more interesting than Rock.

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Mt. Howard, the high-point of Nason Ridge, has a stout prominence of 2,903 ft. This puts it at 55th most prominent in the state. Prominence is a good indicator of the views that could be expected from the summit, as there will generally be nothing around as high as it is.

 

I have climbed Mastiff in May from the Merrit Lake trailhead. We never went as far as Lost Lake, which requires a descent into a basin east of Mastiff. Instead, we climbed up Mastiff's Southeast Ridge. It would not really be possible to ski (skin) up this ridge because it is craggy at one key section on the crest and cliffy on the west side. You could possibly traverse on the east side but it would be a steep traverse.

 

There's definitely some lovely open terrain skiing up there. I've put some pictures in the gallery:

SE Ridge of Mastiff I

SE Ridge of Mastiff II

Mastiff from its SE Ridge

Mt. Howard from Mastiff

Rock Mtn from Mastiff

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