[TR] Heather Pass - Lake Ann 5/14/2008

[dannycoolski]

Trip: Heather Pass - Lake Ann

 

Date: 5/14/2008

 

Trip Report:

After not skiing for about a week and a half, Lani and I were jonesing for some turns. After reading contradicting weather reports about what was actually going to be taking place in the mountains last weekend, and early last week, we decided that we should go take a look for ourselves. So, on Wednesday we set off for Rainy Pass to head up to Heather Pass to ski for a day and a half.

For a short while on the approach in the trees I was encouraged by how firm the snow held up for our skin. However, as soon as we got into an area with less trees as we stayed high on the ridge just north of Lake Ann, the snow deteriorated very fast. In fact we found ourselves having to stomp in every step for the last half mile, which tookk almost two hours. Spent, we made camp at heather pass and called it a day. We were woken up several times that night by large avalanches breaking off towards Black Peak, we would know why the next morning.

When we crawled out of the tent the next morning, we figured it had not got below freezing that morning based on how hot it already was. Lani's thermometer on her pack was reading close to 90 degrees! We then decided to pack up camp and prepare to leave after a short skin up and ski down on the ridge just to the east of Heather Pass (Mistake!). About half way up this ridge we found ourselves having to stomp in our steps again as most steps slid from under us. We decided to find a protected spot in some trees to take skins off. We skied back to our packs (setting off a fairly scary wet slide on my first or second turn, and headed down the north side of Heather Pass, opting not to get back on the south facing slope.

It took a bit of route finding to avoid cliffs and avy paths on the way out, but we managed to get down to the valley bottom safely. We started heading towards the road, keeping our ears open for sounds of traffic. We never heard any traffic, so we started second guessing where we were, but finally reached the road 1.5 miles from the car at Rainy Pass. I dropped all the gear there with Lani and skinned to the car, never seeing a single car. As we were loading up a DOT guy came up and said the road was closed due to Avalanche danger. Big Surprise! He was nice enough to let us drive over to Mazama, where along te way we saw the avalanche that was blocking the east bound lane under the spires. All in all, it was a fun trip and we got to see terrain that is new to us, but mistakes were made in not being more aware of what the temps were doing up there. Here is a link to some pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/dannyozment/HeatherPassTrip

 

Gear Notes:

Skins

 

Approach Notes:

Avoid south facing slopes

[Billygoat]

Thanks for the report. Should be better this w/e. Hope you two can make it to ski-in.

 

Cheers

 

BG

[rat]

".....not being more aware of what the temps were doing up there."

 

http://nimbo.wrh.noaa.gov/mso/newrgl.php