Dirty Face Ski Tour - 1/9/08

Drew, Steph, Mike, Adrienne and I finally got out to ski Dirty Face near Lake Wenatchee. After a bit of driving around scoping the parking situation we settled on parking in the Lake View area and sliding between a few houses on our way up the east shoulder of Dirt Face. About 3 hours of skinning threw old growth trees and trying to avoid avalanche run out zones and we were on the summit ridge. I cant believe the weather station works. The whole station was rime covered and nearly berried. A quick survey of the summit while trying not to be blown off the ridge found us quickly running for the cover of trees before turning fall line and skiing the eastern most avalanche path. We did a bit of ski cutting in the starting zone then skied one at a time to some cover on a small but broad ridge with a few trees. I couldn't help my self and continued on past the group, stopping just long enough for Mike to catch me before we hit the big pinch and work the remainder of the path as a group. What a great ski. Something like 4,000 feet of open bowls and stellar position. Next time I'd like to check out the ribs that run from the summit and provide access to both the right and left run outs.

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.