Skiing the West Ridge of West McMillan Spire
Posted on May 19th, 2008
November 4th, 2004
Email from Sky Sjue:
Tony-
McMillan is essentially my top priority for the winter. But let me readjust your view to give you the correct perspective:
Aha!
I’ll give you a shout when I return. If the weather looks OK and you’re interested I’m sure I’ll be looking to make some turns next weekend (Nov 13-14).
Latah
May 17th & 18th 2008-
Peter Hirst and I were debating about what to do this weekend. The weather was looking picture perfect but the avalanche conditions were not completely desirable. Anything facing North could be a dangerous place to attempt to ski and some of our objectives were too far away to do in a day and a half. Pete had a great idea; we should hike into the Southern Pickets and ski West McMillan Spire. Sky, Jason and Phil had skied this summit for the first time last year under perfect winter conditions. I badly wanted to go with them but at the time I had lost my ski boots so I was out for the first ski descent recon. Last spring I made a solo attempt but was shut down before crossing into Terror Basin due to unexpected adverse weather. West Mac was definitely in the top 10 ski trips of the year and with only a day and a half, and it’s perfect location made it feasible with our limited amount of time.
We left Seattle around 2pm and began hiking from the trailhead around 5pm. We made it the top of the ridge, about a thousand feet below the col at dark and made camp. The weather was perfect and we slept like babies. At about 4:30 Pete asked me to get the water boiling for coffee. By 5am we were hiking towards Terror Basin. We were making really good time and ended up at the small lake at the base of the McMillan Glacier by about 9:30. Conditions were steady except the temperature began to warm but the higher we went the cooler it seemed. At the col right before heading up the west ridge we noticed the wind was getting stronger and clouds were beginning to close in on us. The last hour of climbing was when most of the clouds came in and right at the point where we knew we would not be able to ski through the rocky sections we decided to make our descent. We guessed the spot to be about 100′ from the summit. From that point the skiing was perfect. The pitch was steep and the snow was nicely consolidated. We skied back down the couloir and out in a matter of minutes.
After taking an hour break we pushed to get back out of Terror Basin and back to camp. We made it out by 4pm and began skiing down the ridge to the snow line. Somewhere around 3500′ we had to stop skiing because the snow inside of the dense forest was making it counter productive and we would be able to move faster on foot. Another 500′ and we were back to where the snow was patchy and the trail was finally visible. Another hour and we were on the Goodell Creek trail. Another hour and a half with a few interesting creek crossings and we were back at the car. We made the round trip in about 26 or 27 hours.
Sorry, no photos so here is the photo John Scurlock took that inspired me to ski it:
Posted in Skiing | No Comments »
Powder in April
Posted on April 21st, 2008
Yesterday marked yet another transition into a better tool for the trade. I am now the proud owner of DOWNHILL SKIS. That’s right, alpine touring. They are 3 pounds lighter than my telemark skis and boots. The boots feel twice as stiff and getting in or out is half as long. No worner I am always playing keep up. Now for the ultimate in powder skiing but that won’t be until next season. For now I’ll just enjoy carving paralell turns down butter corn with a feeling of light (and fast Mr Twight and Mr Nelson).
This season has been great. I’ve skied powder and many of those days went unrecorded by my camera.
Quite possilbly, this photo is the most memorable moment of this entire season with a story that will be told by few but remembered vividly among our group. I believe the powder days are over but what is to come for ski mountaineering in Washington has just began. If ever there was a spring to give us ideal conditions for having the most fun in the snow, this has been one of them.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
Northwest Weather and Avalanche Center Data Feed
Posted on April 21st, 2008
Link to the NWAC Data Graphs
Over the past few months I have been developing what I hope will be a useful tool for gaining more of an understanding regarding weather and snowpack infomation for the Cascade Mountains. My focus group is the local ski community that spends a great amount of time traveling in dangerous terrain, at risk of being buried from unstable snow.
I thought it would prove useful to make the information more readily avalable to developers and other platforms that can accept XML as their content feed. At this point in time I have just the first and second process going.
At the moment, I am working on smoothing out the innacuracies of 24 hour snowdata. The graph below displays the amount of snow in a given 24 hour period but as you can see, they have some drawbacks.
The next part of this project will be parsing out past data and setting up a method of running whatever method I can find to smooth out the obvious errors.
Thanks to the folk at the NWAC for helping me out by providing the initial feedback and sending me a CD with telemetry readings that are previous to the March 2008 initial hourly schedulted task that pings their site for the most current information.
Posted in Skiers, Weather, Skiing | No Comments »
Kautz Glacier ski
Posted on October 29th, 2007
Yesterday I was skiing Mt Rainier’s Kautz glacier on amazing corn snow. Sky and two Daves were also part of the trip. Unfortunately the climb ended short after a unanimous decision to ski perfect corn as the alternative sacrifice to a summit. The chute that gained us access to the summit was in unskiable condition and the route through would not be quick and dirty enough for us four. No biggy since I am sure it will be a route I will be doing again next year. It was just the right amount of fun so I can imagine what it is like to be able to ski it from the top.
Photo by Dave #2
Posted in Skiing | No Comments »
Marion Hessey, the last of the first ski pioneering generation
Posted on October 23rd, 2007
At some point my mom did a family tree that showed Charles and Marion Hessey as close relatives a few years back. Apparently based on what she said, she first contacted Lowell Skoog to get their contact information and find out more about them. I believe Charles is my great great grandfather Randolf’s brother and my great grand uncle. I’m a bit confused because there were two generations of Randolfs. My grandmother’s maiden name is also Hessey and from what I am learning, they originally settled about the time of Ezra Meeker. It would be cool to know more about the Hessey roots.
Over this weekend I was adding the video link from the last post to a local website called Turns-All-Year and found out Marion passed away last week from Lowell. Here is the T-A-Y thread.
Thanks Lowell for passing the word.
Posted in People | No Comments »
Eldorado Skiing
Posted on October 21st, 2007
Last weekend Jason, Josh, Sam, Christie, Phil and I did a two day ski adventure on Eldorado. We encountered perfect weather and celebrated the Hummels’ birthday with some awesome skiing.
Posted in Skiing | No Comments »
NWMJ Summer 2007
Posted on September 26th, 2007
A couple of entries in the NWMJ are a result of some pretty great friendships last year. Ross made a submission for Pernod Spire’s Direct West Face and Sky Sjue made an entry for Mt Logan’s Banded Glacier. I also found an entry for Phil’s Rampart Ridge ski adventure, which not surprisingly another party skied within the same winter. By the looks of it, that ridge was under assult.
Another group of climbs and skis happened in the North Cascades this year, well over the turn of the 21st century. More is to come I’m sure.
Posted in Literature | 4 Comments »
Brewing in brewville
Posted on September 18th, 2007
Ever hear of La Conner Brewing Company? How about the Skagit Brewing Company? Well next door from my office, there is the Anacortes Brewery. Two blocks away from the office is Northwest Brewers Supply. Hops grow like weeds and the antique stores stock cool flip tops. Who wouldn’t want to make their own beer here?
I’ve had these two 15.5-gallon kegs for 4 years and last year Peter had the tops cut off in exchange for one. I’ve kept the other dreaming that one day I would finally get it together and start making beer. Today marks that day. It was just a test run to see what kind of problems I would have before getting into more difficult methods like brewing my own yeast, all mash brewing, kraeusening, growing my own hops or all of the above. I suppose it would be fun to try all of those extras but for now I just want it to turn out good enough to enjoy.
Surprising it all went well, thanks to preliminary test runs to avoid major disaster. So far my only concern is that the recipe called for 2.5 gallons for boiling the mash, malt and hops and then 2.5 gallons prefilled into the carboy for a total of 5 gallons. Once I filled the carboy with the wort I noticed that I was down a half gallon of wort so it ended up being 2 gallons of wort and 3 gallons of water. This book I have been referencing, “The Complete Joy of Home Brewing” keeps saying, “relax, don’t worry, have a home brew.”
Good advice.
Posted in Down Time | No Comments »
Mt Erie on Fidalgo Island
Posted on September 11th, 2007
This weekend was the second time I have explored the crags of Mount Erie. A recent move from Seattle has placed me 10 minutes by car from some exceptional crags that offer anything from adventurous traditional cragging with natural protection to the feeling of being at Stone Gardens. My first climb took some time getting to. I have been using some old guidebooks to find my way around the mountain and finallly picked a variation of “Zig Zag” to begin the exploration of this mountain.
Buck On Belay
Buck On Rappel
My new roommate had always wanted to rock climb and decided that he would give it a go. Our first cragging day out and he is following me up a multipitch climb. As a token of his appreciation he picked up a copy of Dallas Kloke’s newest release, “Rockin On The Rock!: A Guide to Mt Erie Rock Climbing”. I’m looking forward to the initial advice based in his (and other locals’) star rating of the more quality routes. The transition between the fall and winter is going to be a pleasure living in this temperate wonderland. The sunset over the San Juans is at it’s most optimum viewing position atop Snag Buttress. It is unfortunate that a lot of my climbing friends are calling me for anything other than climbing here. Maybe when it starts raining at Index they might opt for an hour and a half drive from Seattle to the shadows of Erie.
Posted in Climbing | 3 Comments »
Add Some Triumph To Your Breakfast
Posted on September 4th, 2007
Over a month ago I climbed Mount Triumph and had it all to myself. There were some downfalls to doing it in a day. One being the blisters that are still healing. Yes still to this day show that at one point I had a blister. To think that the mountain that once saw the first humans on July 31, 1938. That was before my grandmother was born if I remember correctly.
Posted in Climbing | No Comments »
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