The Ski Trip I Finally Did Take: Turns Almost All Year
Trip Report
The postcard arrived from Portland: My TLT5 boots missed me. Although the shoes enjoyed chatting with the his-and-hers TLT5 boots at my friends’ house where I had left all my gear at the beginning of July, the other boots still often enjoyed visiting large snow-covered volcanoes, whereas during those trips my TLT5s had to sit in the dark and talk with Lawnmower.
I had originally planned to return to the Pacific Northwest later on, this past July of 2011, but on the very same day and almost at the very same time I was supposed to be driving to the airport, I was instead at the same hometown hospital where I had been born, once again with my mother, but this time fulfilling the Jewish ritual of pulling the sheet over my father‘s body.
On Mount Rainier, my ski partner Greg declares victory over summer.
The very same day and almost at the very same time I would have been skinning up, I was instead eulogizing my father, who had taught me to ski nearly four decades ago, and taken me on so many ski trips over the intervening years.
So I arrived at my friends’ house over a month later than planned. All my ski gear was still there, as well as — unexpectedly enough — almost all of their deep snowpack too.
First up, on the atypical ski date of August 20, was the atypical ski destination of Mt Jefferson. Our tour to the Jefferson Park Glacier featured a nice mix of just about everything: interesting off-trail below-treeline navigation, some route-finding decision-making amidst the volcanic moraines, roped skinning on the glacier between crevasses, careful skiing down the glacier and then a remnant snowfield, a slow lateral move through some steep kitty litter and boulders to access a nice skiable gully at treeline, then a very short downhike through pleasant open woods to reach the trail. Plus we skied for over 60% of our vertical ascent.
So what am I omitting?
Oh, that 10-mile roundtrip on established hiking trails to access all of the above!
At least for much of that hiking we were “treated” to wonderful views. “Taunted” might be a better word, given that those views reinforced how far we still had to go.
‘Are we there yet?’ ‘No.’ ‘Are we even close?’ ‘No!’
Jeff H. hiking through the kitty litter on his near namesake Mt Jefferson.
Jeff hiking through the Jeffersonian boulders.
Was all the hiking worth it to get here? Why yes, yes, it was!
Finally, after all that hiking, scrambling, and skinning, we reached the flat bench I was aiming towards (which turned out not to be flat, oh well!), deskinned (carefully!), stowed my travel rope, and were ready to ski. But not quite yet. I wanted to pay tribute to my father on this trip. Since he was well-known at the local ski area for reading newspapers on the chairlift, I decided to adapt that habit to the ski mountaineering context.
A nice spot to catch up on reading. Specifically, a 1974 article from my hometown newspaper about the birth of my younger brother on the same day the resignation was announced of Richard Nixon, a long-time political foe of my father.
Jeff skis Mt Jeff.
We had some vaguely formed plan about skiing the SW Chutes of Mt Adams the next day, but after a nearly 10-hour tour and a long drive back to Portland, reality set in. So we just went to Hood’s Palmer Snowfield as the lift service was winding down for the early afternoon. I skinned a ways up above the lifts for my article tribute, then skied down to within ~100′ vertical of the lodge (yes, on August 21!), then went up another lap to the top of the Palmer. With all the race courses pulled down and everyone else eventually cleared out, we had an entire nicely groomed skinning area all to ourselves (with the snow above the groomers okay too, but not worth a second lap up high).
The next morning I met up with Greg L. at Rainier’s Paradise, and we started skinning a little over ~300′ vertical from the parking lot (yes, on August 22). We began with the usual mists, which then parted for a beautiful day.
A Lemurian spacecraft visits from Shasta: greetings oh white-robed ancients!
After a couple laps from below Anvil Rock (the site of the newspaper reading once again) on the western ramp of the Paradise Glacier, we traversed over to the entrance of the Nisqually Chute. I had recent beta, and we’d caught a quick glance from below Panorama Point during our ascent, but still, traversing into the entrance was a bit nervous until I had a full view.
Does it go? Yes, it does! I think.
After skiing onto the runout, a quick skin rejoined the main the hiking route.
I then splurged on a room at the historic Paradise Inn, since after driving, hiking, skinning, and skiing about on three different volcanoes on three different days, I craved the luxury of not moving the car at all. Plus just the view for my room’s window was worth it!
Best August view from a hotel room I've ever had!
The next morning I unimaginatively skinned up to Camp Muir (and once again read the newspaper article).
The usual Camp Muir scene.
Despite its status as such a routine destination, Camp Muir has always been very special to me: Twelve years ago I had sat in a rental car in a rainy Paradise parking lot. I had flown out to Seattle the previous morning for a business trip during the upcoming week, and my gear was a mix of borrowed, newly acquired, and marginally adequate. My only real strength in the backcountry was that I was well aware of my numerous weaknesses.
With the vis near zero, and the route unfamiliar, I was starting to resign myself to very short laps above the visitor center when I noticed two people unloading ski gear from the adjacent vehicle. Maybe, just maybe, I thought, if I ask in a polite friendly manner, these two skiers might be nice enough to let a clueless guy from Massachusetts tag along with them on whatever trip they were planning . . . and that ended up being my first ever real backcountry ski tour — thanks again Ron and Jeanette!
Trab Duo ski tip, ‘fun’ cups, undercast, and Mt Adams.
The “fun” cups for the first ~300′ vertical were soft enough to allow for decent transportation on skis, but after that a brief yet intense evening rainstorm had smoothed out the skier’s right quite nicely. Then down the Nisqually Chute again followed by a short skin to rejoin the hikers, who took pictures and literally cheered me on, as if skiing on snow were somehow less natural than awkwardly attempting to walk on it as they were doing.
A short while into the ~300′ vertical downhike (on a paved path!), I was asked if I had found any snow to ski, the questioner apparently oblivious to all the glaciers and snowfields in clear view of the parking lot she had just departed, as well as to the snow literally around the corner from her.
Yet despite all the snow that remains there, I look forward to a break in September before we have our usual get-it-while-you-can October New England snowstorm. Although on my final ski descent, my phone did have reception briefly enough to retrieve an email from a client about logistics for work this coming September in . . . Seattle!
(WildSnow guest blogger Jonathan Shefftz lives with his wife and daughter in Western Massachusetts, where he is a member of the Northfield Mountain and Thunderbolt / Mt Greylock ski patrols. Formerly an NCAA alpine race coach, he has broken free from his prior dependence on mechanized ascension to become far more enamored of self-propelled forms of skiing. He is an AIARE-qualified instructor, NSP avalanche instructor, and contributor to the American Avalanche Association’s The Avalanche Review. When he is not searching out elusive freshies in Southern New England, he works as a financial economics consultant.)
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Comments
11 Responses to “The Ski Trip I Finally Did Take: Turns Almost All Year”
LOL! Ron & Jeanette! You couldn’t have found a more able, affable, amiable, and helpful 2 people on Mt. R. They have introduced so many so well so often to the backcountry around Paradise. Ron has every waypoint and route on his GPS (he shared them with me), a real safety feature on a mountain on which clouds and fog can roll in at any time. He also teaches crevasse rescue. Nice report, Jonathan.
Oh yeah, R & J, and two of the original TAY (Turns-all-year) members and they both have 194 consecutive months of skiing so far.
I’m gonna keep Ron and Jaenette in mind, for some GPS data next time we go up there! Important to have that.
This made me laugh, “Nixon… a long-time political foe of my father.”
I voted against Nixon.
I wasn’t old enough to vote for, or against Nixon :).
Nice read, very much enjoyed.
All the best, tOM
In Northwestern British Columbia, there is a lot of snow remaining on alpine peaks. While this is good for summer skiing, I fear that it could provide trigger points for avalanches this winter.
You left your TLT 5 P’s in a foster home? Jeez, if I’d known that . . .
re: Ron and Jeanette, there aren’t many experienced backcountry skiers in the PNW who haven’t picked up a tip or two from them. My favorite: In the winter, stop in Longmire to use the toilets – they’re HEATED!
Yes, my first real backcountry tour, with two complete strangers randomly encountered in a rainy parking lot, yet not some crazy yahoos, but R & J – what good fortune! (And even back in August 1999, before the scrambling was discontinued in 2000, Ron already was using a GPS.)
My mother has always joked that all of my father’s work on the Eugene McCarthy & George McGovern campaigns resulted in Nixon getting elected President . . . twice! Reminds me though of a series of political polls about the 1960 election. The exit polls pretty much reflected the actual 50/50 split. But after Kennedy’s election was announced, subsequent polls found more than 50% of respondents claiming to have voted for Kennedy. (Apparently this post-election bump is pretty typical.) After Kennedy’s assassination and posthumous elevation in the American pantheon, the % of polled respondents claiming to have voted for him went up even more. By the time of Watergate, the % became even more skewed in favor of Kennedy!
Re early-season avy on lingering summer snow, “good” example here: http://tinyurl.com/3fn3scv
(Also on T-A-Y a few falls ago, Flett Glacier near Observation Rock, IIRC)
Greg, rest assured that the TLT5 boots were well-cared for. Jeff’s garage this summer had five pairs of Dyna-compatible boots and five Dynafit-based ski setups. Plus much other gear. At one point when I was walking through the house with my Dynafit Manaslu pack, his girlfriend exclaimed, “I feel like I’m living in a Dynafit brochure!” (But of course, she’s the one who picked me up at the airport wearing both a Dynafit t-shirt and Dynafit cap.)
I concur about the avalanche danger :/
Jonathan,
Enjoyed your recent trip report-I’m so glad you got to make that trip. There’s no better way to honor your father then to enjoy the sport he so obviously loved. Hoping to hear from you soon on the upcoming skimo race season in New England. While I enjoy any excuse to fly to Colrado to ski it sure is nice to race a little closer to home.
Cheers,
Bill