Rock Mt., Mt. Howard, Mastiff Ski Traverse - 4/27/08

Drew called Saturday morning while I was rigging rods on the Yakima River and asked if I was up for a ski tour on Sunday. After a little pep talk with myself I agreed. We meet at Hatchery Creek with our eyes on Big Jim. A quick drive up the road and we found trees down and patchy snow that we weren't into dealing with, so we changed plans and headed for the Rock Mt. area. Drew mentioned the Rock-Howard-Mastiff traverse as one idea. I agreed not fully understanding what this meant. We found travel quite easy as we ascended the South Ridge of Rock Mt. Patchy snow near the road led to good boot packing as we climbed. After reaching the point at which the ridge angle eases up we started skinning and a few stops ladder we were standing on top of Rock. A quick ski down to the lake and we started skinning east up a small ridge separating Rock from Howard. A 700 ft northeast facing bowl led us to the South Face of Howard and a 900 ft skin later we stood on top of Howard. A great ski to the northeast and we were standing under Mastiff. We took a break then made the easy traverse to the summit of Mastiff where we found a very tempting ski to Lost Lake. It turned out to temping and we skied northeast again nearly 1,400 ft to Lost Lake. A somewhat confusing skin to the south up a gully I had been down in the summer and I was hitting the wall. Drew helped solve the confusion of where to go and we continued to the summit ridge north of Merrit Lake where we finally could take the skins off for the day. A very pleasant ski down the ridge (stay ridge proper) and we were on the Merrit Lake trail head road. A little polling and we on the side of Hwy 2 hitching to the truck. Maybe the best ski traverse I've ever done and its in our back yard, very, very cool.