The Methow Monster

February 17, 2019

106km Nordic Skate Ski: Cub Creek TH - Rendezvous Pass - Mazama - Jack’s Loop - Mazama - MCT - Powers Plunge - Thompson Pass - Winthrop TH

Looking at the winter trail map for The Methow Valley, I couldn’t help but wonder if it would be possible to string all of the major systems together in a day. Over the years, I’d been on all of the trails independently, but putting it together would mean roughly doubling the longest ski I’d ever done in a day. Last winter’s ski from Cub Creek to Mazama and then to Winthrop at 65km was fun and not too painful, so extending the ski around Jack’s Loop before lunch and up to Thompson Pass after lunch seemed plausible.

I started at Cub Creek at 7:15am. The temperature was in the high teens starting the day and expected to get into the high twenties later on, so I split the difference with my wax. It didn’t feel super fast starting out with the snow creaking as I went, but I made it to Rendezvous Pass in about 1 hour and 8 minutes—about 10 minutes faster than last year. I was trying not to go too fast at the start, but was having too much fun and averaged 160bpm on the climb. I had first tracks of the day for much of the climb, which is always a great experience.

The descent into Rendezvous Basin was quick on freshly groomed trails until the grooming stopped near the bottom of the descent. Sick Joke Hill had been groomed the day before for the Tour of the Methow, but hadn’t been re-groomed, so it was skied out a bit and slick for keeping an edge. I was about 5 minutes faster than last year up the climb, with my heart back in the 160 range on average. Thankfully, the descent down Fawn Creek and Goat Creek was was quick and easy. I made it to the meadow just NE of the Mazama Store in 2 hours and 25 minutes and stopped for a quick snack and some water.

Base Camp, Upper River Run, and Jack’s Loop went pretty smoothly with a consistent, maintainable pace despite a noticeable headwind from the North on my way out. I was back in Mazama for lunch 4 hours after I’d started and just shy of 50km in at 11:15am. My legs felt a bit achy, but not terrible. Needless to say, I went to town at the Mazama Store for lunch, consuming a moderately obscene number of calories, refilling my water bottle and stocking up on Snickers.

An hour later, at about 12:15pm, I started down the MCT. While it had warmed up and was pretty sunny, the North wind kept the snow cool and pretty fast. I took it relatively easy, knowing how much was left, and kept my heart rate a bit lower while maintaining a little faster than 7-minute pace. I decided that Wolf Ridge warming hut would be a good place to take a break so that I’d warm back up before tackling the big climb at the end. Taking the boots off and drying my feet out a bit by the fire while refilling my water was awesome. I felt better at this point than I had just before lunch and was pretty sure I’d pull it off.

Climbing Powers Plunge and up past Patterson Lake to Chickadee Trailhead wasn’t as bad as I’d expected it to be—I made it in 41 minutes with an average heart rate of 148bpm. I rested up briefly in the Chickadee warming hut and then set off up Thompson Road. I decided to go up Meadowlark and down the road to give myself some plateaus on the climb and make the descent more straightforward. I kept feeling good all the way up to the pass, taking one short break part-way up the backside climb and making it from Chickadee in about 1 hour and 6 minutes, keeping the same heart rate average of 148.

From the top of the pass, it was in the bag! I zipped down the road, pulling my windbreaker back on along the way and retracing my steps to the top of Powers Plunge, then heading down the Lower Winthrop Trail. After crossing Twin Lakes Road, despite it being pretty flat, I hit a bit of a wall and stopped to eat my last granola bar and drink the last of my water. That was enough of a bump to get me out to the Winthrop trailhead at 5:30pm, just as the sky was turning pink and the moon was bright in the sky—a perfect way to finish it up. What a great adventure day!

UPDATE: See the extension to all the Rendezvous Huts I did in 2020 here.

Ruby Mountain

January 26, 2019

With another high-pressure forecast and relatively stable snow conditions, Kelsey and I agreed to get back out for another backcountry objective, prioritizing views and trying to optimize for snow conditions on a north-facing aspect.

We left Seattle at 6am on Saturday morning and departed the car at the Ross Dam Trailhead right at 9am. We skinned the road and were able to skin a little ways up the Happy Creek trail before deciding it was too thin and that we needed to pack our skis. We paralleled the highway for a ways on the trail and realized we should have just stayed on the road much farther and connected with the trail where it was only 30 feet from the road before turning south. A set of boot tracks doing exactly that made it even more clear.

We booted through the forest to the South, following a trail for a ways and then going cross country until we reached about 3,200 feet where the snow was continuous enough to start skinning. We followed a skin track for a bit before running into a party of 2 headed up for Ruby and planning to overnight it. We chatted with them for a ways and slogged together through the stickiest snow I’ve ever experienced, making each ski feel like a 20-pound weight.

The other party eventually peeled off to set up camp while we continued up, finding better snow up high, but still needing to put a lot of energy into breaking trail. The snow was quite stable and we stuck mostly to ridges on the way up until we decided to take the path of least resistance through a low-angle gully. The final headwall to reach the summit ridge looked steep from below, but wasn’t too bad once we were on it. I got into a rhythm for the last 2,000 feet of vertical or so and just put my head down to break trail—it was a great workout!

As we neared the top, the views were awesome. Ross Lake appeared like a fjord below us and all of our favorite North Cascades peaks were visible. We reached the summit in 5.5 hours despite our errant trail choice at the beginning and trail breaking, which we were pretty happy with. It was breathless on top and we hung out for a bit to soak it in before gearing up for the descent.

The skiing was tough. It was pretty heavy and necessitated sitting way in the back seat to be able to turn. Lower down, we experienced the sticky snow again, which was mind-bogglingly sticking to my bases and making it nearly impossible to go down (guess I need to wax my skis, eh?). Trying to get away from the sticky snow, we traversed to the West, which got us onto snow we could slide on, but took us through tight trees and spit us out above a steep section we had to down-climb. Oh well.

Some more survival skiing got us to where we’d transitioned on the way up and an easy walk through the forest and on the road got us to the car at about 6pm, just over 9 hours after starting. Beautiful day!

Ruth Mountain

January 12, 2019

With a promising weekend forecast and a substantially-lower avalanche forecast than much of the winter so far, Kelsey and I hatched a plan to ski Ruth Mountain on Saturday as a day trip from Seattle. We knew the ski conditions wouldn’t be great, but the views would make up for it. We left town early and were able to drive most of the forest road, parking a little over a mile from the trailhead where the snow got too deep and a tree blocked the road. Another car of 3 guys had just parked before we rolled up and we ended up spending most of our day together.

We left the car at 8:30am. About 25 minutes of skinning got us to the trailhead and then we followed the summer trail since coverage wasn’t great in the valley. Lots of old avalanche debris in the gulleys and frozen snow made the long side-hill approach a bit painstaking. It took about 2.5 hours to get to the clearing below Hannegan Pass. As we climbed, the snow finally turned from a hard icy crust to lighter, fluffier happiness.

We took the shorter approach on the South side of point 5930 and started getting awesome views of Baker and Shuksan as well as The Pickets as we gained Ruth’s North Ridge. The snow became harder and the winds increased as we neared the top. We took in the views from the summit about 5.5 hours after starting our day. Being about 2pm, we didn’t linger long up top and quickly clicked into the skis to head down the north face.

With some wind loading, we took a conservative line toward the East and finished up down the face on some fun spines to stay out of the wind loaded gulleys. We traversed the terrain lower down and slid our way across the still frozen snow in the valley, eventually putting the skins back on to get up to the summer trail and keeping them on for the rolling, frozen terrain from there on out. We got to the car right about 9 hours after starting, just before a headlamp was necessary.

Fun day. A bit more horizontal and rolling travel than I was expecting. The views were stellar and the skiing up high was better than expected.