Mount Tahoma BC Trip

So we're back, living the good life after a hard couple months in the Seattle rat race. Since November's grand climax in OIL prices the economic climate is a complete disaster and the future looks bleak to say the least. Now on to the fun stuff.......
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Leaving Maple Valley headed to a little known town called Ashford, WA, it took about 2 hours from Maple Valley, WA. The crew consisted of Sam Tee ELL leading the pack, Luke hukster Spencer carrying the load, Mad Mike on tele' rippin it up, and Lisa Sunshine going big with the snowboard and snow shoes@! They all had it going on and I knew when I arrived in Morton I was in for a wrecking mission. We left Morton and headed North finally crossing the Nisqually River into the small town of La Grande for a drive by for a couple pic's, and were off to the mountain to start our climb to High Hut. The drive was secluded with thick, lush forest as we passed through at least 5 open gates. Found out last night at the local watering hole DNR is progressing this trail sytem to summer mountain biking by getting locals to build with help from the ski patrollers! I am completey stoked to hear, and I hope more people join the work crews. Be careful the NW Forest Pass does not work for Sno-Park's in the winter in OR/WA and the ticket is $81 bucks! We all got our gear on ready to rock and quickly realized we might be in for more than we bargained. The entire trail as far as we could see was almost all dirt and we were there to skin up from 2,360 ft. to 4,760 ft. strarting from the 1 Rd. Snow Park.

With 3.87 miles to go our pessimism quickly turned into delight as we passed the snowcats sitting on top of fresh groomed trail just after the last closed gate. These trails are maintained by MTTA, the largest NO FEE hut to hut system in North America. The climb was dampened by a slow NW drizzle as we passed cross country skiers with huge grins flying past us as we made our way up to the top. As we approached the hut we realized the terrain was superb and finding fresh lines would be left exclusively to our touring group. The hut was sick and provided all the amenities of city living. Powered by 3 solar panels and a propane stove we found hanging out easy to do.
The first day of ski touring prooved to be incredible, and we were able to ski some amazing slopes with good stability. Luke is on the right grabbing some standard issue NW concrete and Mad Mike is nailing the tele turns fall line in the pic to the right. After several short 700 ft. vertical shots far left down the arm off the backside towards Anderson Lake we headed to the hut for some much deserved refueling. Thats when anticipation of the snow storm that was brewing became lucid dreams of POW shots that were fully realized over the next several days. Since, we were there to rip turns and get face shots we headed to the Outhouse Gully skiers left right off the backside and were greated with unsure snow pack and steep terrain. Mike went first down the right, tighter gully and came out at the bottom. Both Sam and I were hanging out skiers left in a steeper, wider shot fronted by a rollover that was cause for concern. Sam ski cut directly under the rollover and produced a massive slide 12" deep. Luckily for Mike he had moved out of the way as the avalanche rolled through tight trees, over into the next canyon, and blewup at the bottom of the face like a Tsunami on a beach. The pic below is Mike standing midway in the slide zone just before it rolled through the two trees and rolled right into the next canyon before blasting to the bottom clearing everything in its path.With little hesitation we made our way directly back to the hut reliving the slide that with one downhill turn, could have ended in a very different way. The fracture was as wide as the zone we were about to ski and carried tons of snow through terrain traps and down almost 1,000 vetical ft. The low angle slopes were now our future and we were glad to be there. The next day was epic dropping off to skiers right of the front porch and utilizing the groomed back trail to gain quicker access back to the top. This, in conjunction with the Ben Jones Trail made for great descents and lapping the system got us into killer tree skiing that rivaled anywhere. Another storm approached and we called it to break trail back to the hut. Below are some pics that deliver on capturing the elements taking their toll. The snow pack had most likely become more unstable, but I would not find cause I was headed to Mt. Hood and then Mt. Bachelor to continue my powder fest March 09'! Some parting shots as we loaded up our gear and drowned in another freshly fallen 12" or more of stone cold blower. A trip I sonn will not forget and great times, with even better people to share it with.

Thanks to my bro for taking the time to keep keep me informed of opportunities like this that hopefully wont be once in a lifetime! The trek home was a true realization that our time was up and we had to head back to civilization, which now would be much easier to deal with than the pounding storms that punish the mountains in this region every winter.

Couldn't have planned a better trip myself, can't wait until next time. Keep the tips up and pitches steep, 'cause we gonna party until the next turn and you'll have to ski over my tracks if you want to find freshies.