Spring Skiing in Washington is all about the timing. It's hard to find the perfect time, when the road melts out and the Forest Service gets around to cutting up all the fallen trees on the roads and the trails, and the trail still has enough snow so you don't have to take your skis on and off twenty-five hundres times.......
None of those things happened on this trip. The road was blocked by fallen trees, so we had to walk an extra little way along the road. The trail was mostly a joke, starting with two creek crossings, then some decent skining, then now snow, then some fallen trees, then some more fallen trees, skis on packs for 3 miles over fallen trees. Finally at 5000ft we hit constant snow and could skin! YAY!
So now, we needed to head northwest through the forest and find a small lake and a little peak called Cathedral rock. Here's the lake.
And another creek crossing. Our skis came in real handy here.
Once across the log jam we headed up a few hundred feet only to find I dropped the map. So we headed back down to look for it. Found I all the way by the lake. sad.
After another half hour of hiking we made it to the ridge to camp. It was a beatiful place to camp. Amazing views of Mt Daniel and an incredible sunset.
After another half hour of hiking we made it to the ridge to camp. It was a beatiful place to camp. Amazing views of Mt Daniel and an incredible sunset.
Woke up at 4am to this view of the mountain.
We waited the whole day with now lifting of the clouds and constant rain/snow. Crazy. So we bailed. Of course a few thousand feet lower it was nice......The ski out was miserable at best.....except the log crossing was fun.
It was a good trip overall, hard, but fun. Sometimes you have to turn around, not reach the summit. It's all about the journey anyway, right?
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