Hidden Lake Peaks Overnight Ski

Early during the COVID-19 outbreak, before it was considered ill-advised to be in the backcountry, but we’d all been anxiously watching the news, Kelsey and I decided we would be well-served by a winter overnight in the beautiful North Cascades. We chose the Hidden Lake Peaks area knowing we’d get some great views and that we could choose our own adventure based on snow stability. If things looked really stable, we were prepared to head up The Triad.

We drove up from Seattle in the early afternoon on Saturday and were able to make it up to about 2,200 feet on the access road before parking the car, donning heavy overnight packs, and starting our journey into the alpine at 2:30pm. We only had to walk few hundred yards through patchy snow in our boots before the coverage was continuous and we settled into a comfortable skinning pace.

We cut through the trees on the climber’s left as we entered the large open area at 4,500 feet, worried a bit about wind slabs out in the open. This got us to the upper plateau where we did a long, rising traverse following the summer trail until 6,200 feet where we decided to set up camp in a sheltered nook nestled in the trees on the lee side of a rollover. We got there a little shy of 6:30pm—perfect timing to dig out a platform, set up shop, and watch the sunset over dinner. It was quite windy and cold, but we were as protected as possible.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

It was colder than we had anticipated that night, but we eventually warmed up inside our tent. Not trusting the snow for an objective like The Triad, we decided to sleep in and wait for things to warm up. We emerged from our beds around 9am, clocking in a solid 12+ hours, though neither of us slept terribly well.

We headed up to the saddle below the Hidden Lake Lookout in the morning and decided to first ski down to Hidden Lake. A few turns were fun, but a breakable styrofoam wind layer made things tricky. Down at the lake, it was calm and warm, so we basked in the sun for a bit before skinning up all the way to the lookout for lunch. The views from up high were stellar.

Since the turns weren’t great, we just skied down from the lookout, did a brief skin up to the saddle, and then collected our stuff on the way out. We were back at the car by the early afternoon. It was really nice to be outside, especially now as I write this in late March on lockdown, looking forward to a time when I can be back outside.

View fullsize

Methow Monster Plus Complete Rendezvous Hut Tour

125km Nordic Skate Ski

Last year, I strung together the major trail systems in The Methow Valley for a 66-mile (106km) skate ski with 6,400 feet of elevation gain. I dubbed it “The Methow Monster,” hoping that a fun name might entice friends and other like-minded gluttons for punishment to do the same.

This winter, I decided to test myself and add on visits to all of the Rendezvous huts at the start of the ski. The result was a 78-mile (125km) skate with 8,000 feet of elevation gain. It took about 9 hours of moving time and 10.75 hours total, including a voluminous lunch at the Mazama Store. Go get it!

Solo RAMROD

Ride Around Mount Rainier in One Day (RAMROD)

I’d been wanting to do this ride for years and decided this summer after putting a bit more time in on the bike than usual that it was time to fire it up. I drove down to Enumclaw early, packing up with a small running backpack full of food and some extra layers and leaving the car at 6:30am.

The first bit is on busy roads and I missed a turn near Buckley, not realizing I’d gone as far as I had. After a brief detour, I was back on track at South Prairie. The long southbound section was rolling and fun. I stopped every so often to eat an old-fashioned doughnut from my backpack, which was a great source of simple sugar and calories. With early-morning cloud cover, things stayed cool for this whole section. I made it to Eatonville in about 2h20m where I took off my knee and arm warmers.

The sun was out now and the riding was great with a nice, steady uphill to the park entrance. In Ashford, I made a stop at a gas station to load up on Gatorade, Snickers, a Coke, and an ice cream bar. I zoomed past a huge line of cars on my way into the park and then enjoyed the awesome, switchbacking road up to Paradise. I took the climb at a measured pace, knowing I would only be halfway through the day by the time I made it there. A few cyclists doing a shorter day slowly came around me at one point and I had to keep myself from following them.

I took a break at Paradise after 6 hours on the move, eating a big sandwich and putting down a whole bunch of water with Nuun in it while chatting up folks who wanted to know what I was doing up there. Then it was time for the descent! Oh, boy. None of the turns were terribly sharp, so it was really fun to just open it up. I had forgotten that there was an intermediate climb coming around the ridge before finishing the descent to Route 123 and it was a bit demoralizing, but not terrible.

From the valley, I knew one last climb would get me to the point where the final 40 miles would all be downhill. At this point, it was downright hot in the sun and I was not feeling as strong. I ground out the climb, taking one appreciable break in a rare shady spot to cool myself down and eat most of my remaining calories. I made it to the top of Cayuse Pass in a little over 9 hours of elapsed time since I’d started.

I briefly celebrated and then started enjoying the long downhill, which started out relatively steeply and then eased off to the point where it felt like the downhill equivalent of a false flat. I made one last stop in Greenwater for more drinks and calories, then motored on to the finish, arriving right around 6pm.