Squaw Valley is merging with neighboring Alpine Meadows! Starting Today, there will be a combined resort pass starting at $439 for adults. The two resorts share a common ridgeline but are not connected by ski lifts. Squaw has about 4,000 acres and with Alpine Meadows, the two will have more than 6,000 skiable acres across eight peaks. That’s more than Heavenly’s 4,800 aces and Mammoth Mountain’s more than 3,500. Vail has 5,289 acres and Whistler Blackcomb 8,100. Tahoe resorts and business leaders are studying a bid for the Winter Olympics, perhaps for 2022.
After getting a couple of ski days in on Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood the third week of August, I thought that might do it until September. However, soon as we made it back to Snoqualmie Pass, our friend Scott Daggatt hit us up for a hike to Camp Muir on Mt. Rainier, WA. Sting checked out the latest FS report which was excellent for the hiker but very difficult for the randonnee crowd w/ wild uneven boot/sun cups. Always liking a challenge, I grabbed the Moment Night Train skis and we were on our way to Paradise (Scott and Sting did this one in tennies up and down).
If you didn’t know it already, Scott Daggatt was one of the original Nike athletes from back in the Bill Bowerman (Nike co-founder)/Oregon Track and Field days. In 1973 Scott became the 62nd US athlete to run a sub four minute mile and since that day less than 300 other Americans have joined him in the record books.
Scott was coached at Oregon by Bill Bowerman -How cool to have had your waffle soles pressed and swooshes sewn on by the late Great Bowerman himself! Here is a fact about Bill Bowerman not many people know and especially all of us snow riders should. Long before Oregon and Nike, Bill was member of the 10th Mountain Division in WWII. These guys were a special force the Army formed before the U.S. entered WWII. The original mountain training was held up at Mt. Rainier’s Paradise and later moved to Colorado. These guys helped change the war and went on to become a huge force in the making of the American ski industry as we know it today (be sure to check out the movie on Netflix… A must SEE – Fire in the Mountain ).
Once we hit Pebble Creek, it was the last time we saw Scott w/ out help from the camera’s zoom. Scott made short work of Muir’s snow field but it didn’t surprise me much since we know the man is wicked strong and still runs 6 miles in 36 minutes. Scott does a little skiing too, so we need to get him geared up for the upcoming Alpental Randonnee Rally know as the Alpental Vertfest!
Our friend Craig Moore wanted to get the word out to all of our Winter backcountry enthusiast friends that will be in the Whitefish Montana zone (which in that BIG country “w/ in the zone” means a few hours) on the weekend of Oct 1st about an avalanche safety workshop. The Workshop will take place Saturday October 1st, in the Grouse Lodge of Whitefish, MT for a one day only. For more details head over to “Northern Rockies Avalanche Safety Workshop” facebook page
Be sure not to miss this first ever workshop being offered in the Flatthead Valley.
Having just finished a day of skiing on Mt. Adams the 22nd of August it only made sense to head for Mt. Hood to get some more sun and dirty sun cupped skiing. So, we made the hour and one half (or so) drive from Adams to Hood stopping for lunch in White Salmon, WA and then for a quick Columbia River swim in Hood River, OR. Along w/ a cool down it was also cool to check out the massive number of people wind surfing and kite boarding. If you have never been to Hood River before on a sunny hot day, I recommend making it a pit stop on your next Summer trip to Mt. Hood. Cool town that harbors a large amount of outdoor adrenaline junkies from mountain biking, kite boarding and of course skiing to name just a few.
Next stop was going to be the Alpine campground just below the parking lot of the Timberline Lodge (which a lot of folks don’t realize the lodge was used at the “outside setting” for the movie The Shining), but we found it all lock up. We later were told by a USFS employee to many fallen trees and trees ready to fall was the reason for the closure, and w/ a late huge snow pack the crews were other higher priority projects. We ended up heading down to the Still Creek Campground which was actually pretty nice and a short drive from the campsite to Trillium Lake gave some epic views of Mt. Hood.
I was hoping that Sting, Jerad and myself would have met up w/ Andrew, Bo, and Jackson (who were down there to summit the next morning) for some campfire laughs. However, with the Alpine Campground closed and the three of them wanting to start at 2AM they decided to sleep in the overnight parking at Timberline to save time. They wanted to leave super early to beat the afternoon deadly rockfall which seems to be never ending in the Summer. As we woke up the next morning for a late start to our ski tour day the timing was perfect to catch a couple clips of Andrew and Bo skiing/snowboarding the final pitch above the Palmer lift. Great job guys!
After another sleep in morning it was time to pack up and head back to Snoqualmie Pass via the frontside route up I-5 by way of dropping down to Hood River one more time so we could go check out Multnomah Falls (which is 35 miles East of Portland right on I-84). AWESOME rest stop!
Below is a short vid of Andrew and Bo’s Mt. Hood Summit along w/ a couple clips of the must see stops I had mentioned above.
Headed down to Mt Adams, WA on the eve August 21 with the hopes of an early departure from Cold Springs Campground on the 22nd. We all finally walked away from our camp at 4:30 AM and headed up the South climbers’ route. The forecast was for 30 MPH winds at 11,000′ w/ temps in the low 50s, and a weather system moving in around lunch. As we left the tree line 30 MPH winds were found long before the lunch counter and once on the final pitch to the False Summit we were in 40-50 MPH winds which were sustained for the most part (except those gust which blew me over on every now and then).
The high light of the day, after our survival ski down the climbing route, was the wild clouds forming around both Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood.
Be sure to see the cloud time lapse at the end of the vid… Pretty cool, however, over the 15 mins or so I taped it the constant wind moved the camera slightly.
Here’s an invitation from Scott Macartney to attend a benefit cruise in Seattle for the World Cup Dreams Foundation. Athletes attending include:
Nolan Kasper- First World Cup Podium 2011 and first US male to win a Europa cup title since ‘89, 2010 Olympian.
David Chodounsky- US National SL champion, NCAA Champion, World Championships team 2011.
Libby Ludlow- 2006 Olympian, US National Champion
Paul McDonald- NCAA Champion, 4-years USST
Scott Macartney- 2-Time Olympian, 2 World Cup Podiums, World Cup Dreams CEO
Bryon Friedman- World Cup Dreams Co-founder, 2-time National Champion, #1 emerging singer-songwriter on Sirius/XM Coffeehouse.
Music performance by Bryon Friedman.
World Cup Dreams Foundation supports, protects and inspires athletes. The Foundation provides disability protection for elite skiers, helps unfunded athletes with the financial resources they need to compete and supports junior ski racers throughout the country.
Please join us! Limited space so sign up early. Hope to see you there- details and sign up at:
Super stoked to share this one of the youngest Snow Trooper, Andrew Eckels of Seattle,
who does not climb and ski mountains like a typical 18 year old. He has the mad passion to get out there climb it then slay it.
This Summer Andrew has stood on top of Mt. Adams, Mt. Rainier and a couple weeks ago Mt. Hood. Not much more to say except don’t miss this vid… Andrew is SOLID!
Here is a HUGE 8,820 ft. day that Andy Traslin banged out early July in just under 12 hours which included a 2 hour nap. The reward for his efforts was two wicked chutes, Wedge NW and Parkhurst NW. Read the report below and check out the Vid he sent down to share w/ us.
Took a little break from skiing to race some endurance mountain bike events and do some scrambles in the Canadian Rockies. But arriving back on the coast to an amazing snow depth, got me motivated to get some skiing in. The plan was to get up to the Wedge area and asses the conditions. The intended route was the NW couloir of Wedge. A wicked line you can see from the highway on the drive up to Pemberton.
For once I got going for an alpine start. I was pretty motivated this day and feeling some peak fitness. It’s funny I don’t really like running but I found myself jogging up the trail with skis on my back. I made quick time up to the lake and started skinning right from the lake. I saw a group of 9 climbers ascending the North ridge and decided to take that route, which was a quicker option. Once on the ridge proper, I joined a Czech climber who left his partner who wasn’t feeling to good on the ridge. The route was dialed and was basically a boot pack. We did an interval up to the ridge and up to the summit.
The climbers on the summit kind of gave me a funny look as I skied off the top in icy conditions. I had arrived too early on the summit at about 9:30am.I descended the ridge on firm ice. I stopped on the ridge and took a rest and fell as sleep for a couple hours. The hot snow warmed me up. I felt the snow and the corn was set up for the line. I climbed back up to the entrance of the NW couloir. The top was steep and a little firm but was fine once in the chute. I put the skins on and skinned up to Parkhurst.
I had been up there in January with Sky and Naomi only to be turned around by wind slab in -20C conditions in an 8 hour push in knee deep snow, so I was motivated to ski NW couloir. It was runneled right from the top but it was a real cool setting, hugging the rocks and turning beside the rock wall to my right. It opened up to runnel mania, up to 5 runnels, skiing from one to another. Kind of like an Alaskan spine feature only on corn snow. I completed the ski down to Wedge lake.
The Wedge NW Couloir vid below
Parkhurst NW Couloir vid below
An epic winter snow pack for a fun link-up in July.
With the biggest “late season” snowpack in the Cascades since regular stats began in 1916 (on Mt. Rainier) we though a visit to Mt. Adams and Mt. Hood might be a good choice for the upcoming week. I can’t help but reflect on my second trip to the classic SW Chutes on Adams whenever someone happens to mention the STEEP and quite epic 4,000 foot chute. The video below was part 5 of 5 from the Snoqualmie Snow Troopers’ year end movie for the 05/06 season. This trip was just Dale, his pups Boots and Hobart, Trooper dog and myself. Note: The video thumbnail below shows the main SW Chute that starts directly below the False Summit, goes between the two long rock ridges and rolls much steeper for the last couple hundred feet where ridges end.
Around 7PM Jerad and myself met up for this trip on the East side of Snoqualmie Pass to start our drive to the Sunrise entrance of Mt. Rainier NP via the “backside” Yakima, Chinook route. When we finally arrived at the White River campground the other two guys in our party showed up, Andrew and Jackson. We shot the breeze for a while around the campfire, sacked out and four hours later we were off to climb the Interglacier. I hadn’t hiked this trail since the massive flooding back in early January of 2009 and was shocked at the damage. The new trail ( that is still in progress) climbs at a perfect grade that is smooth and wide. About a quarter mile before Glacier Basin we his solid snow and the running shoes were replaced w/ the rando boots. As we came out of the trees in Glacier Basin we all decided to head for the steeper chutes right above Glacier Basin instead of climbing the Interglacier. .
Andrew Eckels kicking the steps.
Below is a short vid of the day in Mt. Rainier NP, WA
