June 23, Cliffs of Insanity (Snowlake)

[dmiller]

Your probalbly asking: What are the Cliffs of Insanity? They are the cliffs that line up on the West side of the lake. Danny a friend who often I ski with decided to call call these the Cliffs of Insanity because they are around 400-700 feet and go directly into the water. Maybe they have another name but that's what we call them. In between the cliffs lay a series of chutes that can be skied, be forwarned though, a fall could result in a freezing bath. Perhaps accessed from the top during the winter, not so during the late spring and summer.

 

A couple of friends of mine decided to go to Snowlake, they brought their wetsuits and went swimming in the lake! I decided to pack a small inflatable raft in my pack and a couple of oars. Thinking of skiing down to the lake, you might want to reconsider. Check out some photos on www.321stars.com and click on the main picture then click on Snowlake and look for the picture of me skiing. Those are oars you see on my pack. If you notice the snow pack to the lake itself is pretty rocky.

 

I now with the aid of my friend Chris inflate the raft and set off along the West Side of the lake. It's about a third of the way across and it's an obvious chute if you lood from the Snowlake trail from across on the East side. Once I reach the chute, my friends are off swimming and I begin my hike on 30-40 degree corn snow and lightly suncupped. I hike the first 3/4 of the of the chute and then put on my skis and side step the rest of the way up to the highest point the snow goes. I figure I feel safer on my skis as a fall will result in me sliding into the cliff wall on the right side followed by tumbling into the frigid waters. I would consider this a moderately exposed route. I now have between 600-700 feet of vertical feet of carvable corn and loose granular snow before reaching the lakes edge. The only tight spot was a 2 foot wide section half way down which required a little bit of figure 11ing. Now it's down to the more mellow 30-35 degree slope before I finally reach the lakes edge. Now it's time to paddle back to the South edge of Snowlake. My friends keep watch on me as I do notice a small leak in the raft. "No problem" Chris says "It should last you about an hour" Luckily it only took about 20 minutes to paddle the distance.

 

Equipment: Raft, oars, skis or board and I recommend if you do have the willingness to actually find this chute bring an ice ax. The hike is a bit sketchy. Don't pop the raft with the axe.

 

I couldn't get pictures of the actual chute but as soon as I get back to Snowlake I'll at least try to take a picture of what I skied and post it.

 

Who needs snowmobiles, lifts or helicopters, that's too easy!!!!!!!

[AJScott]

nice, I remember you talking about skiing that chute with a raft! You guys must have been a funny looking group to see coming up the trail!

[jonthomp]

Right on, Donnelly! I was only half serious when I suggested the raft on that line. Way to go actually doing it. That's some screwball fun that I'll have to try!

[Dave_Schuldt]

Great TR...truly a new level of insanity! We will do anything for a few turns! We need another mini ice age like in the 1500s.