Royal blood

I guess skiing in Royal Basin runs in the family... my brother went in there less than a month before I moved here. Found on an old Mountaineers trip reports board, for May 1997:

Saturday, May 24 - Monday, May 26 - Royal/Deception Basins, Olympics backcountry(M2+) Six of us made the 7 mile trek to enjoy the seldom-skied slopes of Royal and Deception Basins in the Olympic Peninsula. The first 5 miles were on dirt, which made for some heavy packs. We set up base camp in Royal Basin, near the base of Mount Deception.
On Sunday we climbed up to the notch on the East side of Deception, and dropped down into Deception Basin. The South side of the notch involved a little scrambling over scree to get to snow covered slopes. From the bottom we headed South up to yet another notch on the East side of Mount Mystery. We played around in here for a while on excellent snow, getting some steep runs off the headwalls on the East side of the valley. After this we wrapped around the East side of the basin and climbed up Hal Foss Peak (the summit registry showed we were the first ascent of the year). We had a great descent back down to the basin. Near the bottom, the snow got much heavier, and we triggered several large slow-moving slides. One of our party, Johnny, had a nice ride on one of the slides that was a little sobering. We headed back the same way we came in.
Monday we just did a half-day, and headed Westwards through a small glacier valley to a notch in the Needles that gave a great view of more mountain ranges. There was a good-sized snow lip at the top, and we took a bunch of pictures of various members of our party launching off of it.
In general, the snow is still not that stable in this area, especially in the afternoon after the sun's been on it. A solo climber attempting to climb the Honeymoon Chute up Mount Deception early Sunday morning, abandoned his climb after digging a pit and finding a very weak layer 2.5 feet down. We saw the aftermath of a huge slab avalanche that had broken loose on the lower slopes of Mt. Fricaba, and had probably happened just before we arrived. The crown extended several hundred yards, and was probably at least 15 feet high in some places. The run out was about a half-mile in length. (Marc Fortier)

Mindless pedestrian rant

Taking the Burke Gilman trail to work, I often get the block by pedestrians trying to cross at the crosswalks. They stand in front of my bike and get in my way so that I have to maneuver around them when the light turns green, apparently unaware that cyclists are faster than them. Not a big problem since there is usually plenty of maneuvering room. And I am partly to blame since I don't like positioning my bike right at the edge of the street given how easy it would be to accidentally slide into traffic.
But tonight the Montlake Bridge was up. I placed myself just behind the cyclist in front of me who was right at the gate. Beyond the gate is a hundred yards of narrow sidewalk on the bridge, on which it is often difficult to pass people who don't keep to one side. While the bridge was up, pedestrians gathered around me. I was ready to bolt when the gate opened again, but two of them moved right in front of me, including a woman blabbing on her cel who seemed to be unable to determine that the cyclist who was in front of her 1 second ago will be catching up to her in 1 second. They walked abreast, blocking my way, for some time before I was able to weave between them.
When you know a cyclist is going to smoke you in 2 seconds, why do you bother pushing your way in front of them? Are you really that clueless to your surroundings?
I suspect these are the same folks that talk non-stop on their cel phones or putting on makeup while driving, in their own little bubble and completely unaware of what's going on around them.
I need to start carrying a "pedestrian beatdown stick"!

Schnabelkase

We saw these guys dressed in crazy clothes filming some stuff on the moraine in the Asulkan Valley at Rogers Pass. Back at the parking lot, they had a run down van that had "http://schnabelka.se" written on it. They told us it was a "swedish website". You can read a bit about the adventures of the "powder puff boys" here: Schnabelkase.

They also have a blog, where the March 31st entry talks about a first descent one of the guys did in the Rockies. Except it was actually a second descent. The first descent on AT gear though.

Too little snow, too much time

A ski down the south side of Mt Buckhorn (6988ft)

There was some powder around, but we didn't ski it (in exchange for a summit).

The Olympic rainshadow was not in effect Saturday.

Royal Basin

Ski descent of Mt Deception, 2nd highest peak in the Olympics.

Yowsa

Cool/pics and story here by some sledheads skiing a big peak in the Coast Mtns.

It's not about double pole plants

Le col du Roger

On the 28th, Sam, Lori, Greg, Bill and I headed to Saphire Col near Rogers Pass. It was a gorgeous bluebird day, perfect temperatures. Just a fantastic day to be up in the mountains. All photos by Sam A.
Some happy people.

Who's that ripper!?

Lori, Phil and Bill at the edge of a crevasse. "Are you sure it doesn't go!?"

Glacier and mountains.

View down the backside of Saphire Col...

It's my blog, so I can put as many photos of me as I want. One day I will learn how to land with skis parallel to the snow.

Fall down go boom

This nice smooth track (photo by Bob) was made by a car-sized block from a cornice from the ridge-top in the background. Word was that folks hadn't seen blocks so far down the bowl before, nor the cornice crack so far from the edge.

This photo of Sam's is completely unrelated, but was nice.

This is probably the last of the Chatter posts, but I should pound one out for Rogers Pass.

Chatter primetime

This is Hozz (sp?), who hangs out around the lodge and jumps for snowballs. He almost came touring with us one day (between end of cat skiing and start of hot tub, we would often hike for a run to get some exercise).
The late afternoons were also filled with demonstrations of mechanical prowess in the cut block next to the lodge. But no one got any photos of that, so here's another one of me skiing
But it wasn't all glory shots...

Hello Kitty

More of Sam's great photos...
Go kitty! This was just before the last run of the trip.
And this was just after :-)
Drunk people collage.

Blah blah2

This was the most frustrating jump, you totally couldn't see it or the ground from above. Vinnie makes the best of it.
See Kner Rhee. I dunno if it was this bowl or the next one over - but the next day, we witnessed an avalanche come running down from across the valley, apparently across the cat track, from a cornice collapse.
Here I didn't get my gun out fast enough, and am being thrown to the ground by the impact of bullets from the bad guy's gun. All while waiting for the cat to come around.
Morning hike.
These are all Sam's photos. Thanks Sam.

Blah blah blah

Day 3 was like Day 2, which was like Day 4. Sunshine, powder, blah blah blah.

There's a new sheriff in town

Dillon the photographer skied with us on the 25th. In addition to being a really nice guy, he did a great job, especially considering the previous day was his first day on the job, and first time on skis in ~8 years (normally a snowboarder).

"Try to keep your skis on the ground this time!" -Andrew P.

I really can't figure out blogger's photolayout crap... it sucks!

Well anyway, here's a picture of another cat, and us at the bottom of the Vertebrae Glacier run, looking back up at something.

Skiing in the Cascades

March 24





I don't recall much from this day. It was snowing wet and heavy. 30cm overnight, another 20cm during the day, snow level possibly rising to 2000m, "but it's a little colder up here" (lodge is at 1600m). Not many pictures were taken, so here is one of Bill on a later day, planning what to do with his death cookie.

We skied a lot of sticky snow in the trees, and it was actually really fun - just like home. Once we started setting off avalanches in the trees, we moved to a lower elevation, lower angle, burned over area. It was also fun, I wish more pictures had been taken.

The snow level ended up rising to about 1700m.

I overheard someone in one of the groups (from Calgary) say that was the heaviest snow they had ever skied in their life. Wha!?

Kickin' it and a new toque

Am I more excited about the sunshine and powder, or the new toque?

Greg, Bill and I showed up at Kicking Horse Resort on the late morning of the 23rd, and bought single ride lift rickets. We ran into Vinnie and the rest of the crew at the bottom, but parted ways again at the top.

We skied 500ft down the back side and skinned back up. Then we climbed over a peak, and up alongside a permanently closed area that they were currently bombing (exciting! explosions going off nearby!). We skied a semi-tracked couloir down an imposing face - the only easy way down. After all was said and done, it was 2pm. Still one hour before we had to be at the airport, and so I went and bought a new hat downtown.

Shortly before 3pm we arrived at the airport, only to find out everything had been moved up an hour due to impending bad weather. So we were an hour late. Oops. Bill, Greg and I watched a DVD of helicopter safety in a corner, while the other good people finished up outside. Being last, we were of course on the last flight. When it took off, the weather looked like this:

And only got worse. We landed short of the lodge, and had to take a cat for half an hour to get there. But then I had my beer. And dinner. And I had a nice new hat.