Date: November 21, 2020
Distance: 10.6 miles
Gross Elevation Gain: 3500 ft
Humans Seen: a few lifted truck campers on the MF Teanaway Road
Short and sweet trip report from the Teanaway to kick off BC ski season!
I worked late Friday night building an extension to my home desk (might as well embrace the work from home life if this is going to last...) and I was convinced that I wasn't going to get out on Saturday because of the late night. So I slept in. But then when I got out of bed, the realization struck that it was going to be a long day of regrets and FOMO if I stayed in the city all day. So I scrambled to pack my ski gear and get out the door! But where to?? Luckily I keep a Caltopo map of winter accessible(-ish) spots so I picked one off the map and headed out to the Teanaway.
I parked at the gate to the Middle Fork Teanaway road discover pass area because my CR-V didn't have clearance or the tires to make it very far on the unplowed road. If you've got a high clearance truck and some good winter tires, you're good - there were a bunch of people camping on the road. At noon, I started to skin the extra 1.5 miles of road. After crossing the creek, I left the road and headed straight uphill. There was not good snow coverage for quite some time.
Below 4300' the sun was melting me into a puddle of sweat and I could have drank all of Lake Cle Elum to quench my thirst - good thing I only brought 1L of water. Once I got a little higher and the sun started to go down (at 2:30 pm ) it was starting to get cooler but I was close to the top, so I pushed the last few hundred feet to the summit to be greeted by ... trees
Huh?
It turns out you have to go a bit further on the ridge to get the nice views of the Stuart Range and Jolly Mountain. But by this time, it was already pushing golden hour and I did not want to ski down the mess of barely covered downed trees in complete darkness. After snapping some pics, I headed back down. The skiing sucked, but hey, it was better than booting it! It got pretty fun when I got to ski down the crusty forest road by headlamp. I got back to my car at about 7pm.
B&W season is here
Stuart Range
If only I had enough daylight to actually ski down the powdery north face
Nice. It reminds me of an overnight on Yellow Hill in January 2009. There was a strong inversion and it was frosty cold on the road. It got warmer as we climbed, reaching 50˚ on top. I brought two sleeping bags but ended up sleeping on top of both part of the night.
I'm glad you decided to get out! Good weather days like that are hard to come by this time of year, and are even more unlikely to coincide with a day off! That first black and white is captivating full screen. Nice trip!
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