Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:21 pm Kudos for Ingalls Pass? 01-13-08
Kudos for Ingalls Pass? 01-13-08
(Note – long story, feel free to skip and look at the pictures!)
Needed some Eastern Washington sunshine and the extended forecast proclaimed that Sunday would be a cool clear day. While not fond of long range forecasts, I decided to plan for the good weather. Hooked up with the Schmidts (Schmidt Altitude and Alti-Dude) for what would be an adventure – combination snowmobile entry/snowshoe ascent/snowmobile exit. Miles and miles from the trucks…..
Due to their long drive from Sequim, they decided to get into Cle Elum Saturday night while I’d cruise over the Pass early Sunday morning. 6:30am and on the road, with just a bit of light rain falling. First bit of excitement was just a few miles below the Summit. Doing 70mph in the truck with the snowmobile trailer, middle lane on bare pavement. Temps were right at freezing. 150 yards ahead, a small car that was in the far left lane somehow, instantaneously spins 180° and comes to a standstill directly in front of me – heading in the WRONG DIRECTION. Headlights shining in my face, I gently tap my brakes to let the car behind me that something is up. Don’t want to get into the icy left lane, nor do I want to go to their right in case they decide to try to pull over to the shoulder. I decide to go left and slip past them doing 45mph. Not a good way to start the morning although it sure got the blood pumping.
Nice sunrise over the Yakima river as I turned at Cle Elum. Even better views up the Teanaway near where the destination was. Had to pull over and take a quick shot (note to self – buy the DLSR and get a real zoom!)
Mildly surprised to see zero snowmobiles at the parking lot. With the clear skies and fresh snow, there should have been at least half dozen rigs in there. Hmmm. I wonder if the locals know something… Anyway, offloaded the snowmobile and cargo sled just before Jeremy and Tisha pulled up. The plan was to haul our gear in the cargo sled, have Tisha slip behind me on my 1 person snowmobile while Jeremy rode on the very tail end of the sled, ie, musher spot. A mere 10 miles up the snow laden road to the official TH. Should only be a 30 minute ride, tops.
Gave J & T the key instructions (Jeremy – hang on and yell if you fall off, Tisha – don’t put your feet down even if we start to tip over as you’ll snap your ankle in half). With those words of sound advice, we were off! The road was as I had hoped, wide with a nice packed 10’ wide zone of snow. Mostly smooth so we able to keep it at 15 to 20mph for a good chunk of distance. One rest stop at Mile 4 so Jeremy could relax his muscles.
Then, it became more interesting. At Mile 5, the smooth track ended with a large turnaround. Looking ahead, I could see why. Deep, very deep snow on the road. Only 2 snowmobiles had pushed past this point. From the tracks, it looked like from Saturday and no one since. What to do? Why continue, of course!
Imagine a small boat in the ocean, towing another behind it. Up one wave, engine roaring, prop spinning with the 2nd falling into the trough behind. Up, down, up, down, Tilt to the right, left, back and forth. More power, less power. Now substitute a nine foot long snowmobile towing a six foot long cargo sled. Combined weight of 1200 lbs between the machine, sled, gear and the 3 of us. Can’t go fast because the cargo sled would be jerked so hard on the deep moguls that it would be impossible for anyone to hang on. Can’t go dead slow otherwise we’d get stuck. Hard turn of the skis to the right, now hard left. Go up 1 trough, look back for Jeremy. Repeat. Over and over. Jeremy is doing all he can but we eventually lose him on a violent jerk. Fortunately he fell clear of the sled and landed in the deep soft snow.
Plan B activated – have him sit on the gear in the cargo sled, hold onto the side rails (he’s above the height of the rails though, about 20” up in the air). He can give his legs a rest but now it means I have to drive perfectly, calculating every angle so the cargo sled doesn’t tip over and crush him. At least before he’d be tossed clear if the sled turns over. The snow gets deeper. Now it is 30” of powder broken only by the 2 previous machines who had been playing down the road, rightly unconcerned about setting a good line for someone to follow.
Mile 6 eventually ticks by, then 7 and 8. Only 2 more miles to go! We are getting closer and closer but the snows deepen further. Now the snowmobile is tipping from side to side. Tisha is holding on to me one second, then trying to scoot even further back as I’m wrestling the handlebars hard to the left and back to the right. We alternate looking back at Jeremy every 20 seconds. He’s still there! The road climbs and exiting a corner, we get sucked off into the deep unbroken snow. Full throttle!! Too late. Stuck. A little over 1 mile away from the TH.
Ah, the joys of snowmobiling. Merely lift the back half of the 600 lb snowmobile (now located lower than your feet) up 20”. 1, 2, 3 heave. It doesn’t move. OK, now let’s get serious. 1, 2, 3 heave. It comes up 4”. A little more digging on one side, disconnect the cargo sled and another heave and we are out. Rehook the cargo sled. We are so close to the TH now, Jeremy is just going to have to hang on. WE ARE NOT GOING TO GET STUCK AGAIN! And we safely arrive at the TH, a mere 70 minutes after leaving 29 Pines. 40 minutes longer than planned but acceptable.
6’ of snow at the 4200’ TH. No one around. Deep blue sky offset by blinding white peaks. Jagged exposed rocks soaring into the sky. Silence.
While the scenery at the TH would have been enough for some, we had bigger plans. The goal was to get up to Ingalls Pass, then head West along the ridge line to Fortune Mtn and perhaps all the way to South Ingalls Peak. The lone riders from the day before had continued on past the trailhead. Walking on their track was a nice way to warm up for we knew that we’d eventually have to make our own way thru the powder.
After following the tracks for 1/2 mile, they headed NNW towards what appeared to be a deep bowl surrounded by 3 towering hillsides. Rather than following those tracks, I semi-reluctantly step off into the virgin powder since we needed N, perhaps a little NNE. It is deep. Deep enough that you take one step and have to force your foot down harder just to set it firmly in place before lifting the trailing leg high up out of the snow. Repeat. Over and over. I pick a line up the ridge, interspersed with small trees.
At times, the angle is steep enough that the snow is well above my mid thigh (I’m 6’-2”). Higher and higher, we climb. The views open up as we leave the tree line. So mind boggling that I was oh so tempted to take a break every 10 minutes to snap photos. But you can’t do that! You’ll never get anywhere.
We alternate a few leads up the slopes, discussing the terrain and possible avi dangers.
The snow starts to firm up ever so slightly as we cut 14” high staircase steps up the mountain side. Halfway up the ridge, we take a moment to choose our final line. The snow looks good if we angle off to our right at about 1:30. But I have a feeling Ingalls Pass is back to the left at 11:00 o’clock. Unfortunately, in that direction is a very large exposed section of mountain and higher than the crest to our left. We’d be on the face for a long time. So we angle to the right, figuring we’d crest this ridge at least and see where we are at.
Jeremy is kind enough to lead the final push up and over. The final section is windswept. No quite a hardpack, perhaps sinking 5” into the snow. Success!
The face of Mt Stuart is beaming back at us, bathed in brilliant sunshine. No wind, 35° temps. Sun feels so good as we relax near the cornice edge. Pulling out snacks, we start to refuel. Jeremy pulls out his favorite KUDOS candy bar and sets it down on the snow. Before we know it, the candy bar starts sliding down the face of the mountain. We both make a halfhearted attempt to stop it but it goes whizzing out of sight in just a few seconds! Disappointed, we continue eating, nibbling on slices of summer sausage I’d packed in a plastic baggie. Well, my short toss of the bag to Jeremy landed in between us and naturally it decided to join the Kudos bar at the bottom of the 800’ deep draw.
Time was starting to run short and we hated to leave such a perfect spot. Definitely no time to head up the ridgeline towards Fortune Mtn. The deep snow on the ascent chewed up way too much time. Reaching the Pass would have to. Rather than traversing back across the face, we decided it would be safer and quicker to do a direct descent thru the deeper powder to the east side of the draw. Jeremy kept us entertained during the descent, trying to get giant snowballs rolling down the hillside.
Left what I thought was the last area of possible avalanche danger when I heard an unsettling sound beneath my feet. Crack. Crack. About 4900’, on a 45° sleep, where the snow consistency had quickly changed from 30” of powder to 18” of powder on top of a firmer base. In the tree line, not heavy with trees but enough. I yelled back to Tisha and Jeremy to stay in my tracks rather than being tempted to come down the nearby draw or even to cut the slope up further with a new direction. Couldn’t see any surface cracks so I gingerly stepped down further. Heard the cracking twice more but we safely got thru the bad zone.
Finally made it back to the TH and snowmobile as the sun was dropping behind Esmerelda. The ride out was easier than the entry and we were treated to a red/purple ribbon sunset. Arrived back at the trucks, a quick stop for refreshments at El Caporal in Cle Elum and short drive home (well for me at least – the Schmidt’s had to go all the way back to Sequim).
Oh, the kicker to the story? When we crested the ridge, we thought we’d reached Ingalls Pass. Only this afternoon, Tisha thought to recheck the maps and altimeter readings. She didn’t think our view of Mt Stuart was what she had remembered from her previous summer trip several years earlier. Turns out we hit the ridgeline between Ingalls and Longs Pass, descended to Longs Pass and back to the TH. Oops! Thanks to Jeremy and Tisha for coming along. Great company – highly recommend them to any NWHikers!!
Stats - 20 miles snowmobile, 2200' vertical on snowshoes, perhaps 3 1/2 miles.
Joined: 28 Mar 2007 Posts: 800 | TRs | Pics Location: The Quah
Mon Jan 14, 2008 11:29 pm
Wow, Yukon! Love your retelling of the day's events. We were seriously laughing reliving your description of the snowmobiling. Jeremy had no idea it would be so much fun to be propelled from a snowmobile - multiple times.
There isn't anything to really add to your story, so we'll go ahead and post some of our pictures.
At the pass:
Heading back:
What a really great time we had!!! We couldn't have asked for better weather or better company. Thanks so much for letting us tag along on your little adventure.....even if we did add about 1000 lbs. to your snowmobile .
-------------- "Forest 101: These big wood stick things are called trees. The big rocks are called mountains, and the little rocks are their babies." Elliott from Open Season
But, given the tragic course of this winter so far, I have to ask, what about avalanche danger? I admit I haven't been watching the east side forecasts, but it seems sort of soon after recent storms to be up on high open slopes. Just asking.
-------------- "Matt, you are truly full of it. But you take great --- pics, in spite of that." Scrooge
We were reviewing the NWAC reports for the days leading up to the trip. The east side forecast was trending towards lower danger levels (from Considerable above 5000' to Moderate and was listed as Moderate for Sunday. Considering that "Moderate" is pretty much the minimum danger level from Dec thru March, ie, it is never lower than that, I felt comfortable going into this terrain.
The upper face was windblown so most of the powder was gone off the upper 25% of the slope. No cornices above us. All south slope. We then got off the packed South slope before the late sun heated it up any further.
I've also snowmobiled in the backcountry for 30 years. I picked lines heading up and down that I thought were the safest. Were we ever in a couple of spots that I wish we weren't? Yes, briefly. We discussed avi danger before we left and agreed if anyone felt uncomfortable at any time during the trip, we'd all immediately head back.
No, not at all. With all the unfortunate incidents this winter, avalanche conditions should be taken seriously. Hopefully no one else will be caught in one.
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We couldn't have asked for better weather or better company. Thanks so much for letting us tag along on your little adventure.....even if we did add about 1000 lbs. to your snowmobile 
.
