Backcountry Skiing - Mark Hamachek
Washington Pass - January 10-11, 2007
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| Finding a short break in his schedule, Mark
Hamachek decided on a spontaneous ski trip early this January.
After contemplating where to go, Mark, from Seattle, realized
that the Northwest had the best skiing of anywhere in the country.
Having climbed and skied with NCMG several times in the past,
he contacted Larry and the two planned a few days of skiing.
Conditions were great, with the exception of an arctic air mass
that produced some extremely cold temperatures. |
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The first day out, the pair headed up into the North
facing slopes of First Bowl near Cutthroat lake. This
time of year this basin doesn't see any direct sun,
often holding great powder for weeks after a storm.
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| Touring up into First Bowl we both had
lots of clothes on. While the North facing slopes hold
great powder, we were looking longingly at the South facing
slopes across the valley. We would come to our senses
and go to the prominent rib on the left the following
day. |
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| Here Mark crosses an old section of avalanche
debris high in First Bowl with Silver Star in the sun
in the background. The West ridge of Silver Star is the
prominent rib in the center of the photo in the background.
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| After a quick snowpit, Mark lays some
fresh tracks on our first run down from the upper slopes
of First Bowl. |
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| You can tell from all of the clothes
Mark has on that it was chilly. We would have to find
some sun for our next day out. |
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| With high temps on forecast to be in
the single digits, we opted to ski on the sunny side of
Cutthroat. Being in the sun the temperatures were quite
pleasant. Here Mark follows the skin track with First
bowl in the background (with the long arcing slidepath). |
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| The snow turned out to be even better
on the sunny side. This allowed us the rare treat of skiing
cold, dry powder in the sun! |
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| Mark leaves a trail of cold smoke as
he skis down through the open glades. |
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| The skiing was so good, we had to go
back up for one more run, even though it was getting late. |
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| The last run of the day provided some
magical light and great turns before dropping into the
cold valley bottom for the trip home. |
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