10 December 2011 - Cabin Creek

Another quick tour on Viking/Berg course, this time with Karen. It was a beautiful weekend, but since we got there before 10:00 am, the crowds weren't too bad.

Here's a few snapshots from the trip. Click on any one of them for a slide show.

It was pretty cold, so I got to practice my skate technique in backcountry skis while Karen watched from trail:


Also saw these guys having a pretty serious discussion, probably about how long your skis should be for these particular conditions.

Here's one of the fun little downhill sections on the Viking Loop. Even though there were quite a few people up here, the trail still looked like it had just been groomed.

Too bad the weather warmed up right after this. On the drive back, I took a picture of our route on Guye Peak .(posted in the trip report below) and you can see there's very little snow on any of the slopes with a southern aspect. What good is a La Nina with global warming?

7 December 2011 - Guye Peak S Gully Attempt

After a small snow storm passed through and waiting for a couple of cold nights to consolidate things, Mike H and I took a day off in the middle of the week to try out the snow/ice in the South Gully on Guye Peak. Unfortunately work obligations kept me in the office until Wednesday, so we probably missed the best day, but we went up and tried it anyway. There was TONS of snow down in the trees so we were thankful for snowshoes and wore them from the parking lot until we got out of the trees and on to the steeper slopes.
The pass area was completely fogged in, so we never really saw the summit, but we kind of felt our way around until we were pretty sure we were in the right gully. Once in the gully there was a decent crust, so I put on crampons, but Mike is a master of step kicking with his plastic boots so he just powered up on toe holds.

(photo by Mike)

At mid-day and mid-slope, we broke out of the clouds. We also reached a short step at the top of a particularly narrow and icy point of the gully, so I asked to rope-up. It probably wasn't even class 4, but the sun was starting to loosen things up and if one of the ice steps we were on broke off, you'd be tossed in to the middle of the gully without much of a chance to self-arrest. After the step, the angle lessened, but so did the snow. Mike led up a half a rope length or so, but the ground wasn't covered by enough snow for efficient travel and rocks and ice chunks were starting to roll down on us, so we decided to turn around and save the rest of the route for better conditions.

Just for a little extra security, we kept the rope on for the descent, using a combination of anchored belays and running belayed simul-climbing until we got to a safe slope for glissading. It was a short glisade though, because as soon as we slid back into the clouds and trees, we were wallowing in the deep stuff again. Then it was back to snowshoes for the short hike back to the WAC cabin and the car. Maybe it was a bit disappointing that we didn't get to do as much climbing as we hoped, but considering this place is less than an hour from the park and ride, we can't complain too much - it'll be here all winter.

Finally, here's a picture I took two days later driving back from Cabin Creek. Since it was so foggy when we climbed, I can't really tell where we were on this picture, but it's somewhere there just below the right-hand skyline (Guye Peak is the foreground mountain; Snoqualmie Moutain is the gentler but higher one in the back).

Mike has some photos posted on his facebook and mine are here on Picasa.
(Guye Peak from I90)

2 December 2011 - Rainier Playday

Octavian and I skipped out of work again this week, this time for a quick trip up to the Mountain. We weren't sure what the snow conditions would be, so we brought snowshoes and skis.

We spent the morning touring Glacier Vista and the slopes below Panorama Point on snowshoes. Just playing around, trying to find out how steep we could climb; turns out you climb up steeper than you can climb down, especially when it's really icy. The built-in crampons work great on the ascent, coming down not so much.

For the afternoon's entertainment, we skied around to the east of Alta Vista. This side was nice and shady and the snow was soft and easy for the skis. But winter days are short, and before we knew it the alpenglow was telling us it was time to find the car.

Check out the photos here on Picasa.