On January 31, Chester Marler organized a ski tour for a group that had attended our November / December backcountry skiing classroom sessions. Below is Chester's descriptions and some pictures by those in attendance (Peter Bauer and Coron Polley).
by Chester Marler.
Our group group included Freeman and Sherrill Keller, Drew and Cathy Gaylord, Shannon Griggs, Coron Polly, Martin Straub, Dean O’Daffer, Peter Bauer and myself.
We used the main Tronsen Meadows parking area for FS road # 7240, and then walked up the edge of US 97 to the next FS road (no #). You can park here as well, but sometimes it is not plowed. After a beacon check, we skied up this road in a generally southerly direction for ¾ of a mile or so. At just the right spot we left the road and struck out across an open pine stand and shortly found the ski trail that heads toward Haney Meadow. We used this much-traveled route for a hundred yards or so, and then turned right for a short distance, hitting the main skin track that heads toward Diamond Head.
The route follows the county-line ridge for the most part, eventually bringing us to a nice bench below Diamond Head. This scenic spot has some good views to the west toward the Stuart Range, and some stately larch trees. We removed our skins at this point—and after a little food and water, skied some nice snow toward our goal, a northwest facing open slope where we could spend some time doing multiple runs.
The snow can be a bit thin along some of the more wind exposed area, so care is needed to avoid hitting those very hard and unforgiving basalt rocks. This area has many of the same features as Mission Ridge—basalt outcrops, larch trees, shallow snow and a blend of steeper and more moderate slopes.
The shallow snowpack and rocky ground often lead to early winter faceting and weakess of the snowpack, so it is an area where avalanche awareness can be very important. Our trip followed less steep terrain, so our concern was more directed toward avoiding the rocks and finding the right powder slope!
We skied our northwest-facing powder field three times before the afternoon warmth began to change the snow’s consistency. It was time to exit, so we skied down an old skid road to the main snowmobile road (FS #9716). This groomed route gave us good skating to where we eventually left it, and skied toward our original road (after a bit of off-trail travel).
We had good skiing, good practice making kick-turns on a steep skin track, real exercise, good views, excellent company—a fine last-day of January!
Special thanks to Freeman Keller, who helped keep the outing organized from the rear.
