Conditions have finally improved in the Washington Cascades. Sunday night we received a foot of new snow, followed by a couple additional inches on Monday. Crystal Mountain got hit the hardest due to the southerly aspect of the storm. I managed to plan for two days on the snow this week, taking advantage of my last idle week before I start a new project on Monday.
Alpental Super Tuesday
Alpental Super Tuesday was as good as it has been all year. For those who don’t follow, Alpental is traditionally closed on Monday so any time there is a big dump early in the week, Tuesday is the big day for Alpy locals. I rounded up Aaron and Larry and we met on site for the festivities. Aaron and I warmed up with a quick groomer on Armstrong while we waited for Chair 1 to open. Once it did, we headed straight for Snakedance and the fluffy goods from Sunday night’s storm.
Snakedance is a short traverse into the trees, opening into an area of gladed tree lines dotted with small to medium drops and littered with natural booters. When conditions are good–and if you get to it early enough–’Dance can be one of the most fun runs at Alpy, mostly because of the sheer number of hits with good landings. I had a blast but somehow I lost Aaron in the glades so I headed to the bottom to meet Larry.
We arrived at the summit just as Ski Patrol pulled the gates open, so with Alpental’s backcountry looking good for the first time in weeks, the only thing to do was drop into the Elevator Shaft gate. L-Mohler took to Elevator proper while I followed my instinct down through the trees closer to ropeline, eventually ending up atop Rock Face. Both of us got first tracks down our respective lines and at the chairlift we both had huge smiles on our faces. As one would expect after riding significant powder for the first time in weeks.
Several more backcountry runs were in order, including Knoll Zero and more Elevator Shaft and Rock Face runs. We took a short lunch break after about five top-to-bottom runs and from the parking lot we scoped our lines and planned our after-lunch excursions. Belly full of sandwiches and chips, we headed back up for more. From Chair 1 we scoped the Cable Line chute, which had been untouched and had only a bit of avalanche debris littering one exposed section. We decided it would be a worthy finisher, so we hit one more backcountry run top to bottom and returned to close it out with a Cable Line run.
Larry dropped in first through the trees above the Cable Line. The view of Cable Line from the lift is much different from the view dropping in. From the top, it is impossible to see the cable and the cliffs until you’re totally committed. As L-Dawg swept down the chute close to the tree line, I followed closer to the cable and the cliffs, making two huge turns followed by a massive bottom-turn on the runout, both runs earning cheers from the onlookers on the lift. Probably our only glory runs of the day considering we opted to pass on the signature cliff drops under the chairline.
We finished out with a tree line between Shot Six and Breakover followed by a dip under the Armstrong ropeline and a quick drop sequence off the small knolls under the quad. Actually the small knolls turned out to be about twenty footers considering how little snowpack we have this season. So I suppose that counts as a glory line too.
Crystal Mountain Southback
When I arrived at Crystal early Wednesday morning, I had already received the previous day’s report from my crew of locals. Mostly skiers, I knew they would have virtually destroyed the inbounds terrain and the most easily accessible backcountry, so I packed my DaKine Poacher with everything I’d need for a full day of deep backcountry travel. Food, water, blankets, shovel, probe, snowshoes and trekking poles filled the Poacher to capacity. I hadn’t been equipped like this in quite some time, but I wanted to be prepared because my crew will sometimes decide to do a run into the National Park or down to Highway 410 on a moment’s notice.
The grooming was looking epic, so I ditched the pack at the bottom of Rainier Express and proceeded to take two monstrous leg-burners down Lucky Shot to check out the work of Kyle and the Crystal Mountain’s cat crew. Groomed runs were fun for a warmup, but I came for the off-piste terrain, so for the third run I headed into Bear Pits to check out the conditions, where I found a mix of skied-out hardpack and soft, deep snow in the trees. Shaded exposures (north-facing slopes) held the best snow, so I immediately decided to grab the backpack and head out to hike the 7012 foot Silver King.
After the calf-burning traverse to the base of the ridge leading to the top of The Throne, I hooked up the MSR snowshoes–a five-minute ordeal–grabbed the trekking poles and began the slog out to the top of Silver King. Hiking around the back side of The Throne was made much easier with the snowshoes as the sidehilling aspects of the traverse became insignificant thanks to the MSR’s built-in crampons. Can’t believe I have been sidehilling that traverse in snowboard boots for years while leaving the snowshoes in the car.
Earlier I had planned to hike out past Three Way Peak, where I knew I could find untracked lines, but for the first run I chose to hike to the top of Silver King. Upon arrival I found that Brain Damage–one of the heaviest lines into Avalanche Basin–only had a couple sets of tracks, so I opted to work the north facing exposures of A-Basin. It proved to be a good choice as conditions were quite soft and the chute had only a bit of rock exposed.
I quickly descended the col and into the open bowl below. A-Basin is usually littered with avy debris and one must be careful–especially at high speed–to negotiate the slide paths accordingly. There was plenty of soft snow in between and I rode out the bowl at high speed in super-soft conditions. With conditions that good, I could only head back to the King for more.
By the third run into Southback, I decided to try a sunny exposure. Finding a nice open and untracked chute on the backside of The Throne, I scoped a cornice and two or three mellow drops, lined them up and proceeded to log three solid bangers. With no witnesses out in A-Basin to affirm, you’ll just have to take my word for it.
After meeting with my crew at Campbell Basin lodge, we regrouped for another hike into South. Since the crew is on skis and can access the backcountry much more quickly due to the easier sliding around The Throne, I let them go on ahead and I was again on my own. No worries, I just hiked The King solo and logged another run down Brain Damage to finish out an epic backcountry day.
Just as we were about to bury Old Man Winter, he comes back and hits us with the full force of his pent up anger. After what seemed like weeks of the same cycle of warm temperatures mixed with the occasional few inches of snow, a proper winter storm is finally battering the mountains of Washington. I couldn’t help but take a day to celebrate the rebirth of winter at Crystal Mountain.
Eric’s legs were much better than mine, but I managed to keep pace for most of the hike. Timing was perfect for our summit arrival as we were rewarded with a shot of bluebird skies as the clouds parted momentarily. We quickly dropped into Brain Damage and proceeded to work the many various spines and gullies for what seemed like a dozen turns. I stopped to take a quick shot of Eric slashing the deep pow, which on the north facing slope of Avalanche Basin, was deeper and less littered with debris than the other spots we had hit.
Warm air troughs have been bringing repeated waves of rain to the Washington Cascades for the past week, with occasional dips in the freezing level which resulted (mostly) in freezing rain in or near the passes. The cold air sitting over British Columbia finally began to push southward late Thursday, resulting in heavy snow in the 
