Beck, Pete, Kirsten and I planned to go in and ski the normal route on Snoqualmie Mountain up at Snoqualmie Pass, but slow trail-breaking through the new snow and tricky stream crossings slowed us down significantly. By the time we reached the saddle between Guy Peak and Cave Ridge we were pretty far behind schedule, so we decided just to head up Cave Ridge and see if we could find any skiing. We came across a couple long clearings that gave us a couple hours worth of stellar powder. This was probably the best snow we skied in Washington this year. Shoulda brought the helmet cam!!
There was never enough snow last year for Yodelin to be any good, so we were excited to get there this year and ski the sweet tree glades. I had a new helmet cam that my dad gave to me for Christmas that I tried out with a little success.
Arrowhead peak is a small peak a few miles east of Stevens Pass which has an excellent ski descent. The early season snowpack was so good this year, that the route, which covers a couple large boulder fields, was possible earlier than usual. Kirsten and I went up with Pete on a frigid day the weekend after Thanksgiving. Over a foot of new snow covered the route, making trail-breaking very difficult. Fortunately, a small guided group caught up with us and shared in the duties. The summit ridge was windy and wind-blown snow and rhime ice covered the rocks and trees. The clouds parted a bit to give us views of nearby peaks like Jim Hill.
The ski down started out through some tight trees, then emptied us out into the first open slope. These were the afore-mentioned boulder fields. After a few turns, we discovered that while apparently well-covered by snow, the boulders were in fact lurking just a foot below the surface. After hitting a rock or two, Kirsten and I began skiing very cautiously, despite the nice, light powder, too afraid of faceplanting on our tele-gear. Pete bounded down rather easily on his fixed-heel gear, so we made a note of that. This was a really nice route -- an aesthetic climb and some great descent lines -- and somehow bagging peaks in the winter is always satisfying, no matter how insignificant the peak is the rest of the year.
A fair amount of early season snow had fallen at higher elevations in the Cascades, so we headed down to Rainier to do the slog up the Muir Snowfield. We turned around at about 9,000 feet because visibility was bad and frankly we were not in mid-season form. But it's always a pleasure to get any kind of turns on new snow in October.
Video clip of skiing in the clouds on the Muir Snowfield
