1/22-1/23/02
Too much snow.
Jon and I did the drive up to the Tilly Jane Sno-Park on Tuesday morning. Was snowing moderately when we left to start up the trail for an overnight at the A-frame at Tilly Jane.
| Pullin' it all together at the trailhead. |
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Over 6 feet of snow had fallen in the previous 5 days so we knew we were in for some serious work. The base at Timberline Lodge is now a mind-numbing 189 inches!!!
| Skinning up before we hit the deep |
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The hut at Tilly Jane is about 2000 vertical feet above the parking area there. Luckily a 3 day weekend had just ended and some other enthusiasts had packed out a skin track upward. It had become just a subtle depression under the 14 new inches that had fallen overnight, but at least there was a firm base to walk on. But an inadvertent step off the track meant an instant plunge.
| Darkening skies and deeper snow |
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We traded off breaking trail about every 300 vertical feet or so. As we got higher the trail-breaking became much harder and the "depression" that had been the skin track became more and more difficult to spot.
"At least we'll have the cabin to ourselves!"
A number of snow squalls rolled in and out during the hike up. A couple of them made the fleece-only skin up an absurdity, but my shell was packed under way too much gear and laziness (and later - coldness!) won the day. By the time we had broken through 5200 feet, the snow was falling with intensity and the skin track was nowhere to be found. The climb to the hut is usually 2 hours at the most. By the time we had gotten to the last rise up to the hut we had already put in over 3 hours. Breaking trail was at times an inches-per-step affair and I don't think I saw the tips of my skis for the final 20-30 minutes at all.
"So what would you do if someone just waltzed up here right about now after all of the work we've done?"
An instant later: "You guys are doing a great job up there breaking trail . . . keep it up!"
I wonder if that party of 3 heard the sound of us fully deflating . . . We were about 100 yards from the hut and these dudes had just blasted up this sweet track we had excavated.
"Hope you brought the beer" was Jon's reply.
| Jon looks with shock as the other party approaches from below |
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| The cabin appears! |
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We rolled into the cabin and tossed all of our wet junk off. Now that I wasn't moving any more the chill was setting in hard - the frozen water in the hut made it clear it wasn't balmy in there. Broke out my little stove and set it up first for hand-warming then to make some quick tea. Jon stoked the wood stove and it was cranking pretty hard soon thereafter. That deep chill wasn't giving up easily, though. I had gotten pretty soaked with sweat and the freshies piled on my neck and shoulders.
The other party were just up for the day and took off at about 3pm. At about 4 we ventured out again and tracked higher on the skis up into the trees above the cabin. Progress was slow in all of the deep stuff, now deeper than ever above 6000 feet. We had hoped to set a track to just about treeline to set up for the next morning, but didn't quite make it. Stripped off the skins for the ski down as the light began to fade. We soon realized that any ideas we had about making turns back to the cabin were ridiculous. There was 2-3 feet of really light unconsolidated fluff on top of a bottomless base. Any venture from the skin track offered up about 10-15 ft. of skiing in thigh deep pow followed by an immediate halt. The pitch closer to treeline is a little steeper so we hoped we'd be able to make turns there the next day.
| Returning from late evening trail excavation |
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Did the quick bobsled run on the skin track back to the cabin and started into dinner - an awesome spread engineered by Jon. My inclination is always the fast (and boring) Ramen and Power Bars route. The creativity was appreciated as always.
| Nothing like a warm pot a' snow with some guacamole spooned on . . . |
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Hit the rack at 8:30 drawn up close to the stove for warmth. That A-frame is a big space to heat -
| " ...'dja bring me my cheez whiyuz boy?" The early morning, poor sleep on the NeverRest, windburned from the day before grimace |
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After a fine breakfast we hit the skin track we laid down the night before for the push to treeline and up. The track had been obliterated in places by the wind and 8-10 inches of additional snow that had fallen overnight. As we got a little higher the wind had worked the snow a bit more and the skinning became much easier. We continued up until the snow had become 100% styrofoam and the winds and blowing snow made progress uncomfortable.
| Mt Hood makes a ghostly appearance on morning lap #1. Snow plume billowing off the summit |
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The turns in the gully above treeline were nice in progressively deeper snow. Once we shot back into the trees the snow was instantly absurdly deep. We were able to do some slingshot stabs off of the skin track into the deep stuff in the trees, but linking together 5 or more turns was impossible.
We turned 'em around for another lap up on our track - seemed a shame to waste only one lap on that skin track - and punched it up a little higher up the ridge this time.
| Pinching off another lap up the gully |
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We were once again repelled by the stiff 40+ mph wind at the ridgetop and the requisite ground blizzard, along with some orographic snow that was beginning to fall from the next approaching front. I think by now we had resigned ourselves to this quazi-skintrack slingshot skiing and the descent was a blast. Stopped off at the hut for a warmup and some tea and packed up our gear for the 2000 foot descent back to the truck.
| Jon getting comfy in the front seat on the ski back to the cabin |
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| Finding the sweet spot in the chilled hammock |
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| Tunneling out of the cabin entryway on the way out. The exit from the cabin doesn't usually require kicking steps! |
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The descent to the Sno-Park was comedy . . . The snow had almost filled in the track from the day before, but speed in the track was still possible. So we did this leap-frog deal where one of us would punch ahead - try to pound out the track until brought to a halt by the new snow - then step aside and allow the next guy to gain speed in the packed track and punch ahead as far as possible. Execution of this maneuver was poor at times. I tried to pass Jon at speed a couple of times going directly from the track to 3 feet of snow with over 30 pounds on my back and had some amazing spills. An overhanging tree then had its way with me - I thought I had ducked it, but it managed to snag my shovel handle, torque me, and put me on my back like a bug . . . comedy.
| ... finish off by sprinkling on powder turns to taste ... |
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We skied down to the top of the Cooper Spur ski area to find that they weren't open and everything was still totally ungroomed! So we got about another 500 vertical feet of powder turns in before hitting the road for the short stroll back to the rig.
| The slightly saggin' powder wagon |
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First time that I can remember complaining about too much snow. Hopefully it won't be the last!