Forum Index > Trip Reports > PCT South - Stevens Pass 1/17/04
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ridgewalker
Mountains and Rivers



Joined: 19 Aug 2003
Posts: 223 | TRs | Pics
Location: North Bend
ridgewalker
Mountains and Rivers
PostWed Jan 21, 2004 4:51 pm 
With the onslot of snowboarders in my crew, I found myself heading to Stevens Pass this weekend. From what I heard conditions were a gamble, but this mid-Cascades choice seemed to pay off in the end. This time, as 5 people choose to take the lifts up and down providing not effort to those pounds over the holidays, a friend from Enemclaw, Jason and I headed up the ski area on what we could make out was the Pacific Crest Trail. Most of our ascent included what was some of the more popular crowded runs. We stayed to the sides as best we could. When the ski runs crossed our trail, it was like a turtle crossing a freeway of skiers or snowboarders. They screamed around us at high velosity as the edge of there boards cut into the layer of ice just below the powder. It was surreal! We were given pips for our ascent, most people impressed that we had beat the Lift Companies at out of our 40 dollars! Yet on the North Slopes a costant cloud seem to cut out any promise of views! That was about to change! As we pushed over the slope to the Mill Valley south area, we headed due south over a tricky 45-50 slope to the Power Lines. Once there the glimps out towards the West was glorious. In the distance what I could see is tyhe sharp face of a mountain that I believed to be Thunder Mountain by the Map. Clouds were coming form the south from Deception pass and decending like a waterfall into the lower Tye Valley. In the distance, peaks of the North Section of the Alpine Lakes could be seen, and we could make out Index. At this point the plans to make it to Lake Susan Jane were scrubbed, and we decended the West Side to see what we could see. In the fresh powder there were a large number of rabbit tracks. Going from tree to tree. It seemed very recently this little flat meadow seemed to be alive with every sort of hare around. Soon we realized what it was all about. Either a bobcat or some sort of small cat track followed one of the path of hare tracks. The ripe evidence of nature fulfilling it's course. Over the other side of the ridge, this would have been impossible because of the en-mass of Skiers or Snowboards. But here, wilderness was found in its purest form. Been taking an Evolution and Ecology course at the UW so we followed the path in ernest to see other evidence. We did not find any other then what we could tell was an even more recent Bear Track! This is when we decided that nature had found out we had taken the wrong trail and was still giving us the worth for our efforts. Took at lunch overlooking the Skykomish Valley. Talked with Jason on the normal topics of hiking, the life the universe and everything... Small talk. Then headed back. Once over the ridge, looking north acrossed the Steven's Pass Ski Area, we caught a good view of a trail on the north side of Steven. debated weither this was the portion of the PCT heading to Lake Vahalla and other parts north. (If anyone knows the condions of Avalance domain on this trail north please relpy). All in all, not the trip we had planned but better then we hoped. -- Ridgewalker

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Forum Index > Trip Reports > PCT South - Stevens Pass 1/17/04
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