Would-a, Mt. Josephine, Floordalee ski tour - 2/27/07

Mike Deshamaker and I spent the better part of a day plundering knee deep late season pow! We rode Hogsback then Tye Mill at the Stevens Pass ski area then dropped the backside into Mill Valley. After about an hour of swooshing up hill we were standing on top of the north facing bowls of Should-a, Would-a, and Could-a. We did a little ski cutting and then dropped with big smiles into Would-a. After reaching the bottom of the basin we turned east and started heading to the Burn. Being that neither of us had been there we turned around when whiteout obscured our view as we reached the north ridge of Mt. Josephine. We then decided to continue up the ridge and skied steep trees back to the Should-a, Would-a, Could-a basin. With very little time left to catch the last chair out of Mill Valley we sprinted for the final glory of Floordalee. Knee deep and cold the entry shot of Floordalee was amazing. This may have been the best pow run of the year!

Rock Mountain Ski Tour- 2/13/07

Steph, Adrienne, Drew and I enjoyed a day up high today. With motivation from Steph and Drew, Adrienne and I packed what gear we had (mostly work gear, thanks Stevens Pass) the night before and tried to get to sleep early. We had breakfast, drove and got going around 8:30 am. At first we were climbing threw dense forest on a hard crust from melt freeze the week earlier. The crust made for quick travel once everyone had their ski crampons in working order. We climbed at healthy 1,000 ft/hour with a quick stop for a bite to eat overlooking the clouds below in the Nason Creek drainage. Not long after our refreshing bite, we were in the alpine overlooking large sparsely treed slopes with prominent avalanche gullies as exits. We continued up the ridge until whiteout barred any further prudent travel about 400ft from the summit. A tea break and again we were moving, but down this time. We skied east back down our ascent ridge then dropped northeast into what looked to be a frozen lake. Another quick skin to the east and we dropped south threw open glades into a very prominent drainage that pinched down to less than 100ft wide. Here we found large amounts of avalanche debris including broken branches and mangled trees. A quick down climb of rotten snow near a waterfall and a little adventure skiing and we were back on the road. A great day.

Avalanche Level II Training 1/07

Adrienne & I recently took a Level II Avalanche Course, which focused on the tools and techniques that are used to analyze snow stability and avalanche hazard. The course was spread out over a 5-week period, allowing us to document and observe how the snowpack changes over time. We were fortunate to be able to travel in a variety of locations to understand how weather, terrain and location can dramatically affect the snowpack. This course is part of an ongoing effort to expand our knowledge and experience in the backcountry and is a stepping-stone to a Level III Avalanche Forecasting Certification and a Level I Teaching Certification.