personal | splitboard adventures at paradise on mt rainier

I know, I know. Winter is over. On sunny days like this though, I can't seem to stop thinking about winter adventures. See for me, summer is my working season. I can barely find the time to leave my computer screen, let alone go on a hike or make it to a happy hour with friends. With that season rapidly approaching, I've been trying to savor every last bit of free time I have. Taking a walk through the neighborhood, going on a weekend bike ride, whatever I can fit in before my time is taken up by editing, shooting, traveling, answering emails, uploading photos, writing blogs, connecting with vendors, and all of the other wonderful things that my job entails. Don't get me wrong, I love it, but like everyone else, I do savor my days off.

This winter, in fact, was terrible. And winter the time that I usually look forward to the most. It's pretty depressing to see snow levels the way they are. Cherry blossoms were blooming in February, it was raining instead of snowing in January at Crystal Mountain, and I can only imagine how it's going to impact the wildfires this summer. That being said, I do think it's funny when people look at me cross-eyed after I tell them I went snowboarding in April. Yes, it was bad, but it doesn't mean there was NO snow! When you spent five years of your life living in a ski town, sliding down snow simply becomes a way of life. With ski resorts having sub-par conditions for most of the end of winter this year, I found that it was absolutely necessary to go hunting for powder in other ways. Enter Jeff and Kelly Steele. Basically I met these two through Instagram. Sounds crazy, but a mutual friend commented on some of Jeff's photos and I realized he had a wife that was a splitboarder. I've been desperately hoping to find a lady friend to splitboard with in Washington. Not that I don't like going with only boys, or girl skiers for that matter, it's just different to have another female around that is doing the same thing you are. I recognized Jeff on a particularly poor weather day up at Crystal this year. We were all lamenting the bad weather over beers at the Snorting Elk. It seemed like the best way to spend the day at the time. We got to talking and planned our first trip up to Paradise on Mt. Rainier.

Our first experience was probably one of the best days I've EVER had snowboarding. We only took a couple of lines but the powder was totally incredible that day. It had snowed about a foot and the trees looked like tasty marshmallow-ice cream cones against a brilliant blue sky. Really I couldn't think of anywhere else I wanted to be at the time! The next time we went up was just a few weeks ago in April. Visibility was nearly nothing with the fog and clouds as we were skinning up. Barely being able to see, we decided to stay low on the mountain and dropped into a skinny little chute that Jeff and Kelly named "Happy New Year Chute". All of us were completely shocked that the snow was so good. And it was April! After that it warmed up into some pretty sticky snow but the companionship and the feeling of being out in the mountains made for a pretty amazing day. 

I have to say, I'm pretty stoked to have met these two. I love having Kelly around to tell me "You can do it!" as I'm struggling up a slippery kick-turn or to high five after an amazing line. There's just something different about the energy that girls bring to the table when they snowboard together and I have really missed is since leaving Jackson Hole. I can't wait to see what other memories and stories we can all create together, no matter what Mother Nature decides to hand us next season. Cheers to wonderful days in the mountains.

Going backcountry SAFELY.

Looking out at the vast mountains - top of Tye Mill

Good morning! I'm waking up to a sunny Seattle day, after what feels like the best sleep I've ever had. This past weekend, I took my Avalanche Level I Certification class. I was pretty nervous at first, thinking that I wouldn't be able to keep up with the rest of the backcountry enthusiasts, but I really surprised myself. I took the course through Mountain Madness, and I would highly recommend it. They were so helpful and so experienced, I knew that I was getting all of the information I needed for safe backcountry travel. The course started out with a 3 1/2 hour lecture on Friday night at Feathered Friends in Seattle. I also got to rent some super cool snowshoes in order to ascend with the skiers who would be on skins. The next morning I got up at 5 am in order to make the foggy drive up to Stevens Pass. There were fifteen people in the class, ranging from early twenties, like myself, to probably late forties. Mixed with girls and guys, although I was the only girl who wasn't just a plain snowshoer. Everyone else was a skier, except for one other dude who was a snowboarder. They put us snowboarders with the snowshoers for the first day.

We hiked for a little while out to the right of the resort, underneath Cowboy Mountain towards an area called Grace Lakes. In that spot, we were able to learn how to use our avalanche transceivers. I have an Ortovox d3, and I was surprised at the efficiency of the technology. After practicing for a while, I was able to gain confidence in my rescue skills, realizing that the hardest part of the rescue is the shoveling. Then the guides split us into two groups where we had to create scenarios of possible burials. When we tried the other group's scenario, I realized how important it is to have good communication between your group members. There were two "people" buried, one with a beacon and one without. Finding the beacon was easy, but probing through the snow to find someone without a beacon is next to impossible. You have to look for clues, such as poles, gloves, etc to find the buried person and even then, the avalanche could have carried them anywhere. It was quite a challenge! Well that's enough of day 2, let's move onto the next day.

Yesterday was the day that we went out and took a tour. They put me and the other snowboarder with the skiers, to create a group of 10. Two guides, eight students. Stevens Pass hooked us up with lift tickets so that we could hop over to the backside. I strapped my snowshoes to my pack and off we went, bombing down the icy groomed runs to the winding cat track underneath the slope that faces the "backside" of Stevens Pass. We hiked about 1,000 feet, switchbacking through the trees. I'd never been on snowshoes before, so I struggled at first while I tried to figure out when they did and didn't have traction. I realized it was easiest just to go straight up as opposed to switchbacking behind the skiers with skins. I was the only girl out of the whole group, so it made it a bit intimidating and I was huffing and puffing. I didn't want to look like a wimp :) When we got to the top, we were staring into a large wall of steep slopes and cliffs with a lake at the bottom. It was clear that there had been a few avalanches during our last storm system.

Looking at the avalanche debris after hiking about 1,000 feet

Gnarly looking face in the Stevens Pass Backcountry

After we stopped to observe and analyze the slides, I was the designated leader for the group. I had to make the decision on how we were ascend to the saddle on the left side of the bowl area. Hiking straight up through the gully would be the fastest way, but also the most dangerous if there were to be an avalanche. There were two steep slopes on either side of the gully, one with no trees which indicates that it probably slides a lot. I opted to go around the lake since we have such low snow cover for this year and then up the slide path on the left side and cut into the trees. It worked out fine until we were really close to the top and I was forced to sideways step on my snowshoes across a really steep slope. I was freaking out just a little but it wasn't far so I got to the other side pretty quickly. Finally, we reached the saddle and had a gorgeous sunny view of Christmas Bowl!

Taking the ridge on the left side would be the safest way to the peak - Christmas Bowl - Stevens Pass BC

The picture doesn't do it justice. It was so sunny, I couldn't get a good picture of the ridge because there was extreme overexposure. The picture suggests a route we could take to get to the top. Hike along the left side up the ridge. Unfortunately we were pressed for time, as we had to get back to the backside of Stevens to catch the lift before it closed at three, so we took a path up the left side. This turned out to be very steep and we had to make some pretty sketchy decisions. There was about a half-inch of crust over some very soft sugar snow, which did not offer much traction on my snowshoes. I almost wanted to cry at this point but I wasn't about to give up. We reached the top of the right side and were still staring up at the ridge of Christmas Bowl. We decided that we probably wouldn't want to ski down the crust, so we ended up dropping into the avalanche chute that was pictured earlier.

Staring up at crusty conditions in Christmas Bowl - Maybe next time...

It was super hard and crusty, with spots that were soft enough to turn on. The avalanche forecast was low, increasing to moderate on sun-facing slopes in the afternoon so we weren't really worried about getting slid on. To get to the bottom, we had to ski down a gully area that was pretty steep on either side. It was either that or going through the trees that we hiked up to on the first part of the tour. That would be fun if there was powder, but on this particular day, the surface was hard and crusty.

Watching the rest of my class ski down a couloir filled with avy debris. I was glad I made it!

With the cat track in sight, I breathed a sigh of relief, knowing that I was going to make it down safely and uninjured. It was such a learning experience for me, and I was so proud of myself for keeping up so well.

Maybe I'll ski that someday!

After taking this class, I feel like I can take my snowboarding experience to another level. I could look at a slope from a distance, find a safe way up, and ski down if I knew the conditions were right. Being in the backcountry is about good decision making, and this is what the course teaches you. Now I know why my friends in Jackson Hole said that taking a course is so important. Being in avalanche terrain can be a life or death situation and it's all about making it home at the end of the day.