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Posts under ‘Mountain Play’

Kokanee Video

Andy put together a fine little video with our footage from the trip. Be sure to expand it to full screen.

Kokanee Hut from A. Toyota on Vimeo.

Busy May

The moment we got back from our Kokanee trip we dove into a hectic schedule for the month of May. I’m wrapping up my documentary film class with Andy for a “premier” on June 8th, trying to fit in as much helicopter flight time as possible and, the kicker, taking Snohomish County’s “Rigging For [...]

Kokanee Hut, Nelson BC

Five years ago, when we did our first hut trip to Fairy Meadows, we fell in love with the “hut trip” concept. We’ve since gone to several others, but have been trying each year to get a spot at the Kokanee Hut via the Alpine Club of Canada’s lottery system. We missed it [...]

The Hog Loppet

This past Saturday Erik, Carey, Alisa, Rich (Alisa’s husband) and I all skied the Hog Loppet, a 30k “race” from Mission Ridge outside Wenatchee to Haney Meadows at Blewett Pass. It was a bluebird day with temps in the 40s.

The race covers 18 miles and starts at 6400 feet. The first 3 miles [...]

Finally Skiing - A Two Tour Weekend

It has been a fairly dismal snow year here in the Pacific Northwest. Our passes to the Snoqualmie resorts lie crisp and fresh, untouched, in our helmets. Amid the organized chaos of involvement with 3 or 4 Search And Rescue teams between the two of us, we’ve had precious little time to use [...]

Caribou Lodge - The Puppy Tour

After ushering in 2009 in a moldy, half-frozen yurt, we made plans to close out the year in comfort and style. Caribou Lodge had been good to us despite poor skiing conditions in March and it came through again for New Year 2010.

Snow Pit Graph Explained

Many of you will be familiar with this stuff already, but Aunt Tilley (Margo) wanted a more thorough explanation of the graph in my last post, so I wrote it out for her and figured I might as well put it up here, too.

Soggy Slogging at Yodelin

We took Jessica out for her third backcountry weekend in a row, aiming for the trifecta of difficult skiing conditions. We were lucky to find 15″ of new snow that had been subject to 2 or 3 days of above freezing temperatures and several inches of rain. Had to be some of the [...]

Breaking In New Folks, 12/12, Hyak

This was a Cascade Backcountry tour, and a beacon/travel education day for a couple of friends who are new to touring.
The very ambitious (and never really serious) plan was to head out the XC trails from Hyak and scoot out to Twin Lakes, then up to ski the east slopes of Silver. Coverage along [...]

Spontaneity Arete, Le Petit Cheval

Andy has been diligently hunting for moderate alpine climbs that Anastasia would be willing to do — Spontaneity Arete just east of Washington Pass was the latest effort. Short approach, minimal scree and loose garbage, solid rock.