The forecast wasn’t looking so hot, but Dan was game to head up to the Pass with me since I had to be up there anyway to help out in the afternoon with chair evacuation at the makeup patrol refresher. We met at his house in the morning, loaded gear into the pickup, and headed up the highway. As we pulled into the parking lot, we were both pleasantly surprised at the coverage on the hill. It looked like about 8 inches or so of a wet, heavy base.
We changed into ski boots in the patrol room, shouldered packs, and headed out. The plan for the afternoon was to do chair evacuation on Sleepy at 2 pm, so we needed to be back to the patrol room around 1:00 to eat lunch and prep. I headed out a few minutes before Dan and snapped a few shots with the fisheye, and then we headed up the skintrack.
We headed up KP, and it was obvious from the tracks that a week or two earlier the snow conditions were decent due to the old tracks in the snow. It didn’t look like anyone was around this morning however, and it was a peaceful skin up the trail. We worked our way up Eagles, and to the top of KP, where the view looking out across the tree farm towards Peak 2 showed just how dire the snow conditions were…
Dan was pretty sure the backside wasn’t worth visiting, as he’d been up there the past weekend and it wasn’t worth skiing. Since it really hadn’t snowed more than an inch or two, we didn’t have high hopes, but decided to head over just to stretch the legs and take a look. On the way, we stopped to admire the new saddle sled tube….
We continued on to Peak 2, and the snow stake was so low getting a reading wasn’t even possible, but it looked like the depth was about 12-14 inches. Northern definitely wasn’t skiable, but before we left, I suggested we skin over and check out Waldo. To our amazement, it looked decent, so we decided to give it a go. Dropping in tentatively, we made a few turns, and as we descended it became better and better…
We approached the headwall tentatively, and it looked like there were a few dicey spots, but not too bad, so I gave Dan the camera and headed down. I hit one rock, but other than that, it rode clean and mash potato turns felt great!
We skied down to the intersection with Down Under, and called it there since the snow became super slow and heavy. Up to that point however, the turns had been quite good, and both Dan and I regretted not arriving at the mountain an hour or two earlier since it was already approaching noon and we needed to head back up to get over to the base for our patrol obligations,
We set a track back up Waldo, following our turns for a ways and then busting trail. Looking back at the views to the northwest, I had to marvel at the beauty of the Pass — something that’s easy to take for granted when you’re up there a lot. As we approached June’s, I peered over the edge to check it out and see if it would go, and the answer was a definitive no! As Dan approached, I snapped a photo to document what it looked like…
Once we made it back to the top of Peak 2, we pulled the skins and skied over to EPA before skiing down the frontside. From the skin up, we both agreed that Eagle’s would be the best bet for the descent, so we headed out, dodging rocks and sticks on KP on our way to Eagle’s…
We dropped into Eagle’s and Dan had the camera, so he snapped a few shots of me dodging the trees and rocks on the way down. Conditions were definitely spicy, but the turns really weren’t all that bad. We were extra careful, and made it down without tagging any rocks or taking any spills…
At Wayne’s World intersection, I headed on down to the base while Dan worked over to ski George. Just cruising down KP making turns was fun, and back at the base we were both pretty stoked just to be able to be fortunate enough to have been able to get out in the mountains for the day.
The rest of the day was spent leading chair evac, and it went off without a hitch. The day ended with Dan and I lounging around the patrol room with a few other patrollers, enjoying a beer while reminiscing about previous good days and looking forward to the season to (hopefully) come. Here’s a parting shot of June’s from the day…
