Rock to Mastiff Traverse
Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2016 5:38 am
Been a few years since I've had an itch to meet in monroe at 5 am. Three of us set out for the Rock to Mastiff Traverse on Sunday. We found a track in place, one other party on route, and variable but generally great conditions. We dropped a car at the Merritt trailhead and were able to ski car to car. The trip went so smoothly there's hardly anything to write about, so I'll just post some pics.
We broke out of the fog somewhere in the mid 4000's
Eric preparing to point the north side of Rock
He ended up making a few turns on chalky wind buffed pow
A quick skin back to a notch...
...then rip the skins...
...for more sweet turns...
...and some bliss....
...on the way to Crescent Lake.
Another skin up to Howard. First half of the traverse can be seen in the background. Drop the north side of Rock, skin back to the notch, ski down to Crescent Lake out of sight behind the sunlight ridge with the skier
...then top out on Howard...
...for a couple of steep turns with a post card backdrop of Glacier.
Then cruiser turns down to Canaan Lake
One last skin up Mastiff, as seen from the top of Howard.
The snow felt so good on the way up Mastiff that we ditched our packs at the top and took a lap before topping out a second time with daylight to spare
We unfortunately underestimated the deproach though. Wrapping back around Mastiff took way more time than we anticipated, so we ended up skiing the several thousand feet to our car by headlamp. Which, oddly enough, felt refreshing. A great day out for sure. Thanks Eric and Bryan!
We broke out of the fog somewhere in the mid 4000's
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Finally, FINALLY, have that thing off my back! And made enough to pay off the rest of my debt to Christine. So that chapter is now officialluy closed. Life is good hombre. Might even be able to come down for a visit in the spring, if your life isn't too crazy by then.