Arrowhead Ski Tour - 1/8/08

Once again Steph, Adrienne, Mike, Drew and myself got out to do a little ski touring on Arrowhead. With the DOT closing the usual parking spot for Arrowhead last year we had to do some looking around and planning to pull this one off. After meeting in the Nordic Center parking lot we decided on rolling the dice and using a small pull out just down from the railroad bridge. We ran across the road and scampered up the cut bank then quickly disappeared into what felt like a Christmas tree farm. A little work and some good route finding by Drew and we were on the old logging road access. We quickly made our way up the road and cut into the trees before the road crossed directly under the lower bowl. A quick contour around the the west edge of the bowl and we started to really climb. Steep, steep trees lead us to the ridge separating Arrowhead and Jim Hill. We turned east and found our selves on the summit of Arrowhead under relatively clear sky's and enjoying views of the Chiwakums. The snow stability wasn't very good as we started picking our way fall line right down towards the large rock feature I think the peak is named after. Good safe ski technique and we all enjoyed the glades without incident. Next time I think I'd like to ski the skiers left glades, maybe not as steep but they look more open. Below the upper glades we skied into the lower bowl we had avoided on the way up then followed the logging road to where we had seen a snow filled gully that lead us almost all the way to the railroad bridge. Next time I'll go to the bridge and find this gully for the easy way up.