Tag Archives: PNW

PNW Winter is Here

After telling myself continually to wait it out through early season conditions, I managed to get a day in on the Friday before my birthday. One of Catherine’s co-workers, Sean, offered to drive up for the day, hoping to catch the projected two feet of snow on top of the recent back to back storms we’d had.

I’m happy to say I’ve returned to skiing injury free. A few months ago, back in August, I injured myself during my usual fall season workout, on a normal day, due to a number of factors, but mainly not recognizing my own fatigue. After several months of PT I’m now back to about 90%, and not looking to get hurt and miss what is shaping up as a great winter, with a long touring season ahead. If there’s one lesson I’ve learned, it’s that strength training is useless without mobility and a good foundation.

It was a great day, and because of the two feet of relatively dry powder by PNW standards, a good time to feel things out. Here’s one of Sean, with video to follow.

Yodelin Wednesday

On the Wednesday after Catherine and I’s return from Leavenwroth, I decided it was time for a tour. The snow had piled up and settled down since the weekend, and despite the relatively low base compared to last spring, I gave Yodelin another try. There were two other groups skinning up, and the whole area is relatively protected, so my biggest concern was falling in a tree well, but luckily at least most of those were filled in. Route finding was a bit difficult since its turns out the access road is full of brush when it’s missing 5-8 feet of snow. It was a true East Coast skin heading in: frozen solid, and lots of thick brush. Luckily the higher elevations had over a foot of light and fluffy powder on top.

Conditions in the PNW have been even worse than last January , so it’s been tough to get the touring in. People have been doing it, but finding good routes as a difficult challenge and I’m not that familiar with the early season routes yet, aside from Rainier. This was my first tour since late last June, early July when I skinned up to Camp Muir. Taking a few laps at Yodelin is certainly a different sort of tour, but it was fun nonetheless.

Heading out was just as hard as skinning up due to the low coverage, but in between I got a few creamy turns. It was a fun walk in the woods and certainly an interesting way to start the touring season. Though it was fun, in retrospect I perhaps should’ve waited to go touring a few more days. It rained everywhere the day after, but I was also just shaking off a cold, which has since turned into a chronic cough probably due to spending the day inhaling cold mountain air…

Fall From Different Heights

October is always a month of transition, especially in the PNW. I love the shoulder season, with the crisp Fall air which eventually brings snow and the anticipation of winter. It’s still surprising what a difference one week can make, and a few thousand feet of elevation.

Two weeks ago Catherine and I did the enjoyable Iron Goat loop hike, a 6 mile jaunt. The trail follows the old railroad bed used by early steam engines to climb over Steven’s Pass until the tunnel construction finished. It also officially terminates at Wellington, the site of the largest avalanche disaster in the US, in terms of fatalities. We caught great fall scenery on a relatively clear day! Of course in true PNW fashion, it rain the week before and the week after.

The caboose marks the turn around point, after which Catherine and I hiked the upper railroad grade and detoured to Windy Point. There we enjoyed some great views and met a trail crew volunteer. He told us a bit of history of the iron Goat trail restoration, and helped remind me that next summer I want to be more involved in hiking trail crews to give back and help others enjoy the great hikes out here.

Windy Point used to be a precipitous turn for the railroad, until a tunnel was excavated into the hill the make the turn less sharp and protect trains from winds and weather.

Iron Goat trail was full of remnants of structures, tunnels and history, which you’ll have to go investigate for yourself! I don’t want to give it all away but there was a lot of signage and great stories from the past.

Kendall Katwalk

Last weekend I convinced Tim and Dylan to do a more typical PNW hike-in the rain. We headed to Snoqualmie Pass to investigate the Kendall Katwalk near where Sweeney and I skied last April. The hike was serene, if lacking in views, and we had an awesome time! We also got soaked. We encounter rain, sleet, and heavy snow, with below-freezing temps and lots of snow at the Katwalk.

We knew there was a possibility of laying some tracks in the North Cascades, but I’m glad we did this hike and content to wait a few more weeks until there’s more snow to go crazy over. We’ve got a whole winter ahead of us!

The Katwalk proper looked a bit less striking in the low-visibility conditions. “I think…this is the catwalk?”, I exclaimed as we passed across it. We decided to go a bit further and hang out in a grove of trees to have a snack before descending.

Turning around we encountered a few other groups, and we were glad to have made the first tracks up for the day and have the trail to ourselves for the most part. On the descent the snow, and then rain, really turned up a notch.

With the high country getting hit by snow, this probably marks the last high elevation hike, and the start of touring season on the horizon! Bring on the snow! Here’s praying we don’t fall prey to El Niño.

Back Two Backpacking

After a recent series of hikes, it feels about time for another post. We’ve been doing some “fun” backpacking trips lately, also known as hiking in, camping, and hanging out, rather than pushing all day until night falls and unpacking in the dark. There’s a time and a place for long grueling backpacking trips, and the past few weeks were not the time. We also did a great hike with some friends last weekend, which I’ve combined into this one big post covering the end of August and early September!

Summit Lake

Our first trip, a few weeks back now, was to head south towards the border of MRNP, and camp at Summit Lake. The trailhead lies more than six miles up and into the mountains at the end of a somewhat rough forest service road, though the rangers assured us it was ‘far from the worst’. Since dogs seem to be banned from campgrounds in the NP Summit Lake drew a lot of dog owners hiking in for the night. We made a relatively quick ascent, heard there was a sweet overlook campsite, and bee-lined for that.

The rest of the day was spent taking in the views of Mt Rainier, and hanging out at Summit Lake proper, lounging until a dinner of re-hydrated food. Mmmm. The evening and morning lighting made for even better photos.

In the morning we packed up, headed out and got a great breakfast nearby in an old Saloon.

Olallie and Talupus Lakes

The following weekend was labor day weekend, and after plans for a larger three day surfing trip fell through, we opted for another fun, easy backpacking trip, this time near Snoqualmie Pass. The forest road up was much smoother and the lake views were great, especially with some weather patterns moving through creating interesting clouds. Dylan joined us as well for the relaxing afternoon in the lake basins.

The morning fog rising off the lake was a nice treat. On our way back, we stopped at the Falls, since Dylan hadn’t been.

Heliotrope Ridge

Our friend Ian suggested we do a hike together, and because of his love for glaciers, opted for Heliotrope Ridge. After staring at topos all last winter, reading TRs and debating when the best time to ski it was, it was awesome to finally make a trip up from the valley that’s one of Mt. Baker’s main melt outflows. Ian, Tanya, their daughter Lily, Catherine and I all met at the trailhead and started up. It was a gorgeous day for hiking and sightseeing.

All in all an awesome day! Ian was a champ carried a sleeping Lily both up and down the trail. The trail itself was more taxing than one would’ve expected, moderately gaining elevation throughout, and included several fun creek crossings. I can’t wait to head back this winter. The trailhead is also the starting point for one of the main climbing routes, so we encountered more than a few mountaineers making for the summit.