21 Attachment(s)
TR: Washington Pass - 4/20-21
@Leavenworthskier and I headed north this past weekend for a some camping and poking around off Washington Pass. Great times were had but the snowpack is quite strange this year. In places it looks to be quite thin and honestly I’m curious how late these lines will be able to be skied. That coupled with the fact that we are not getting good isothermal freezing is making for some “touchy” conditions.
I’ll attach some photos for reference but LVS remotely triggered a R1D1 which was spooky especially in April.
We left Casa De LVS at the crack of 7 after getting up at 5 because coffee, breakfast, and morning duties are essential prior to hitting the road.
Stopped to stretch the legs at Wells Dam while heading north on 97. Feels like spring down low.
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We had originally planned to ski then set up camp but opening weekend on US20 was a gong show — so after driving up the pass we decided to head down, grab a campsite, eat some lunch then head back up.
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As per usual blue lake trailhead was full to the brim. Wanting no part in that we continued west and picked the basin between Cutthroat and Whistler peaks.
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Snow bridges are thin already
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Heading up.
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This section maybe has 1 week at the longest before it’s too bony to ski.
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Gaining views
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Whistler peak and Cutthroat
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1500’ of pure corn goodness, looking back towards Cutthroat Peak.
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LVS
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Heading back out.
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The evening consisted of quadruple stuffed Oreos, a stroll down the old early winters trail, miso soup, charcuterie, and a freeze dried meal of choice. To both of our surprise it was 10pm by the time we ran out of firewood so we climbed in our bags and passed out.
Is it quadruple stuffed or double double stuffed, these are the questions we pondered.
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Once again we had planned to get an alpine start but the bags were too warm and sipping coffee in the morning sun was far too inviting so we opted for a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, over-medium eggs, and thick cut bacon.
As a side note of all the things LVS is known for cooking eggs over a butane stove on a cake pan should be highest on his list of accolades.
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We arrived to the rainy past TH and headed up a little “whacking with woody” coined by @jackattack lead us to the summer trail.
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Up up up
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We spotted something that looked fun to ski while skinning above Ann lake.
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Black peak in the distance.
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Absolutely stunning views while climbing up to maple pass.
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We arrived at the top of maple and noticed several pretty blatant signs of instability, there were tracks of two other skiers that had triggered 2 recent wind slab events both above and beside maple. This was concerning to us. Also the day was getting quite warm and without a solid overnight freeze the potential for wet slides was ever growing. We we made a decision to ski down near Ann and call it a day. We picked a rather mellow route and kept it around 30*. LVS dropped in and on his second turn he triggered this wet slide. Nothing consequential but this just pointed to the energy that is still in our pack right now.
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We skied a slide path that went earlier in the day down to Ann and proceeded to bush wack through the coral reef out. A classssic end to any north cascade adventure.
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We made it back to the trailhead, turned the truck east and meandered back home. What a weekend.
