North Cascade Heli

[brown9]

It only rains here. Move along.

[pipedream]

Just saw that the damn TAY thread finally got locked. Hopefully Freeski got shitcanned too. The same damn rant interjected by him into every thread over there was getting old.

Freeski invited me to go touring in WA pass with him, sled bump included. For obvious reasons, I'm not going to disclose his personal information, but I'm inclined to take him up on the offer next season, provided Good2Go can come along, too

[Jack Burton]

any feedback on the Barron Yurt terrain? I have a chance to go this winter to fill a spot, wondering how good it can be when the touring terrain has stable snow, vis and all the other components of fun?, steep, rowdy fun or mellow fun :-)?

[PNWbrit]

any feedback on the Barron Yurt terrain? I have a chance to go this winter to fill a spot, wondering how good it can be when the touring terrain has stable snow, vis and all the other components of fun?, steep, rowdy fun or mellow fun :-)?

Probably the best skiing and yurting of my life.

Do it.

Edit: As usual the steep/rowdyness/mellow factor will depend on the the lowest ability/fitness member of your group and your group's overall ability to do exactly as they are told by the guides. We had skied with the guides previously, our group BC skied regularly together, all well avy educated, one member an AMGA guide in training.

We couldn't fly out on schedule because of weather so got a 4th night and another free day of spectacular powder. (we very nearly didn't get to the yurt at all because of the weather though)

Food is excellent, abundant (plenty of leftovers/extra for the unexpected extra meals) and the yurt cozy and well equipped.



This is the last run of the extra day having just got a call that the heli was on it's way in thru a break in the weather.



This is the pick up in a "break" in the weather.

[Jack Burton]

dang, that's great to hear! much appreciated

[John_B]

dang, that's great to hear! much appreciated

NCH guides are good people and the terrain at Barron is a ton of fun. It's sure nice starting up high and skiing a bunch of shorter laps.

Shoot me a PM if you get any Winthrop area questions and I can help you out.

[Dromond]

PNWBrit nice photos from the archive. I was hiking sort of near there this fall - what a pretty area!

[PNWbrit]

NCH guides are good people

They are.

Josh and particularly Jeff are amazing. He took our aspirant guide under his wing for sometime after this trip and mentored him through his exams/qualification

[garyfromterrace]

LeSausage! Wow, in a previous life you must have saved a bus load of children from certain death after it fell through the ice. How else could you have scored such amazing turns in such a cool place?

[Jack Burton]

Thank you for the replies! Booked, a shot a good fun is enough for me, John B, will do :-)!

[phillip.moneyhun@gmail.com]

Radical

[MichaelJG]

This is great, I miss the PNW. Really cool footage.

[ianpnw]

[ianpnw]

For some reason I can’t post photos. We were at the Barron yurt last week, and it was awesome. Backcountry travel is heinous around much of the state (read the NWAC posts), but our guides led us up in the widespread breakable crust, and down in some shady, north-facing boot deep goodness!
I’ve stayed and skied there many times - my take is that it’s a wonderful experience, the skiing is great, the food excellent and plentiful, and the camaraderie from hanging out in the off-grid yurt is great (no internet = no screens). I’ve skied with many of the NCMG guides over the years - they are uniformly excellent.
After about 8 years of annual trips, we switched to heli-touring with NCH (same guides). There’s more terrain in play, and depending on the group the terrain can get very rowdy (see various segments in ski movies). The only “downside” of heli-touring is that you are brought back to the heli-barn every day and have to arrange local accommodation and your own food. So probably “better” skiing, but not quite the same degree of off-grid fun.

[Jack Burton]

Thanks for the push PNW & John B, great experience at the Barron Yurt, I'll get some pics up, snow was incredible & guides were great. Combo of crew and Jan weak layer kept us from steeps but damn it's a rad place, ended up interacting with 4 guides and we were impressed with each one. Spent a few extra days in Mazama for xc, tour/ski and chill

[dougmckenney64@gmail.com]

Mazama is a hidden gem. This was great to read!