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Backcountry WashingtonSubmit a report
02/17/08 I finally talked the family into going on an easy cross
country tour, so we headed up to Old Man Pass, up the Wind
River Highway. I've been skiing up here for at least 20 years
and I've never seen as much snow as there is now. Carson
Fish Hatchery (under 1000' elevation) still has 4 feet+, must
have been about 8 or 10 feet up at Old Man Pass, which is
just under 3000 feet. The highway was closed at Koshko Snow
Park, so we parked there and headed down the ski trail towards
McClellan Meadows. These are normally groomed, but it looks
like they were overwhelmed with the amount of snow (or ran out
of funds like Oregon) and just quit, an impression fortified
when we arrived at McClellan Meadows Snow Park to see abandoned
equipment just parked at various spots. Conditions were firm,
with some softer spots where it caught the sun. It was a nice
tour down to the snow park and I was able (barely) to talk
Rachel and Kiyomi into heading up the forest road to a mellow
clear cut so I could get some turns in. The clear cut was
completely in the sun, but quite runneled and conditions
varied from nice corn to a bit icy. I had my lighter gear
(E109s and leather boots) so the turns were challenging even
on this mellow slope. I took about 4 runs or so before they
insisted we head back. Again, a nice tour back to the car,
with some nice little hills for me to bomb down. A good work
out, tons of snow, beautiful weather - a good day. Heading
down to Willamette Pass this week, looks like the snow is
returning just in time.
TeleMurray
01/28/08 I took the day off since my daughter's school was closed. I
decided to look for some turns in the concrete here in Home
Valley. I headed up
to the power lines, followed some animal tracks and then
broke trail up a hill thinking I could track out a little
slope. Once up there, I thought maybe I could make some turns
in the trees, so I cruised up a bit further and tried it
out. Unfortunately the trees were too tight and the snow was
too heavy. I cruised down a nice steep slope under the power
lines - straight down, no turns, and crossed over to the
trees on the other side as they looked a bit more open. I
found a nice slope, but I couldn't find anything steep
enough and the snow was really, really heavy. I took a few
runs and was able to force some turns out, but not much fun
in the heavy concrete. Last time we had the big snow, it
was 15 degrees for a whole week, this snow sucks :-). Too
bad, I now have the makings of some pretty long tours tracked
out. The mountains should be awesome next weekend.
TeleMurray
01/27/08 Major Oregon ski resorts reported snow fall of 12 to 18 inches
in the last 24 hours, Home Valley, Washington had 25 to 30 inches
in the last 24 hours. Unfortunately, the temps had risen to
right around freezing from the upper 20s of yesterday, turning
the light fluffy powder of last night into concrete. I put
my skis on and headed up the road towards the power lines,
finding very deep and heavy snow. In fact it was major work
breaking trail. I headed up the power line right of way,
crossed Berge Road into the trees to keep from having to
track through 3 feet of concrete, and headed towards the ATV
trail that runs through there, picking my way through sometimes
dense undergrowth. Still more concrete. I skied
down the ATV trail, back up and then back down the power line
right of way, probably a 2 1/2 to 3 mile tour, took me 3
hours - it's hard work skiing through deep concrete - and
I got a major work out. We're expecting more snow,
hopefully we'll get something lighter on top and I can do
some more skiing and maybe even look for some turns.
TeleMurray
12/08/07 No fresh snow and it's time to get the family Christmas tree. Sounds
like the perfect tour up at Old Man Pass (upper Wind River area). we
headed up to McClellan Meadows SnoPark, arriving at about lunch time
and headed up the ski trail (road) afterwards. Conditions were marginal
- icy crust with a thin carvable trace on top. The clear cut where we
get our tree is about a half mile in, but since I wanted to get some
exercise we toured up to the Meadows view spot a couple of miles in.
Rachel really books on her skis so we made good time, stopping to talk
to some folks out touring as well. We headed back to the clear cut and
started looking around, trying to find an easy access in and an egress
through which I could drag the tree out without too much trouble. There
were lots of nice trees, the best looking ones seem to be Spruce trees.
Ouch, the needles are always sharp :-). We finally picked one out, I
got out the hand saw and sawed it off and dragged it up to our hang
out spot and stuck it in the snow so we could check it out. My home
brewed IPA was cold by then, so we enjoyed that, took a few turns in
the marginal conditions and generally enjoyed the great weather. I
wrapped the tree up in some heavy plastic, tied some cord to the
trunk and tied the other end of the cord to my pack and dragged it
up to the ski trail. A nice little run back to the parking lot, the
tree got reasonably good glide coming down the moderate hill. All
in all a fun little tour, got a decent work out and I'm ready to
nail some major turns next weekend with my ski amigo Freeheel Jay
coming up from Ashland.
TeleMurray
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