Yodelin Backcountry Skiing 3.12.11

I’ve come a long way since the beginning of this ski season. I remember my OFA training at Stevens and the feelings of apprehension and dread I had going down most of the runs. Now I go down the same ones and almost chuckle a little that they made me uncomfortable. I’m not even close to being an expert skier, but I’m a good solid blue skier now. I have even started going off trail a little or going off of small jumps at the edges of the groomed trails. Aaron was of course looking ahead to the next step and found a great deal on some backcountry skis, Shuks Anns from K2. He just got a new pair of bindings so he’s letting me use his old ones for the time being. Luckily he started me on this right during some sales so I got good deals on an avalanche beacon and boots too, and picked up the skins that keep getting passed down amongst friends. I had my setup in a weeks time – it just took a couple more weeks before I really tested it. After the trip to Hawaii, we went up to Stevens for a day of skiing in-bounds. I really wanted to try everything out since I’ve only ever used the one pair of boots and skis that I had. The new skis seemed to work well, definitely a little different feel underfoot though.

The next weekend Aaron checked reports and picked out Yodelin for some backcountry skiing. Yodelin is an old ski resort just a mile or two east of Stevens Pass. The slopes are relatively gradual there so even with high avalanche danger elsewhere, you can still get some turns in at Yodelin. We packed up the Jeep, aka Snow Pea, and headed to the mountains about 6AM. I had gotten a quick lesson of how to use my beacon, bindings, and put the skins on my skis the night before. I started out and Aaron stayed fairly close to help give me some pointers on skinning and kick-turns, although no kick-turns were actually needed, I at least got to try a couple. I of course trailed towards the back of the group but I really enjoyed skinning, it was a nice winter wonderland we were heading up to. There were a few others on the trail, including a couple of split boarders ahead of me so the trail was nice and wide. We finally made it to the top of the area and started to ski down through the trees. It was nerve racking to say the least, I’m not a big tree skier yet and I didn’t feel like I had any control. We were soon out of the heavily treed area but I was still not enjoying myself – I couldn’t seem to turn or stop for the life of me. I had to wedge and run myself uphill. We finally stopped down in some trees.

After a quick break we headed back up towards the actual summit of Welldiggers Ass. At this point we had lost most of the group so it was the car (Aaron, Luke, Niki, and Monia) plus Micah. We stopped just before entering the heavily treed area and had some lunch. I pulled out my new bright orange Mammut puffy to try it out. After a nice break we put the skis back on and headed back down for some skiing. The second run was a bit better. I didn’t feel quite as out of control although I was still wedging a lot, with an occasional one footed turn in there. We went back down to where we had stopped before and did some avalanche beacon training. Aaron buried beacons for Niki, Monica, and I to find. It was fun, despite the incessant beeping, and I feel like I know how to use one – although I’m not sure how proficient I am. Luke and Micah joined us after doing a lap through the trees so we headed back up for a traverse over and a final run down to the parking lot.

The final run was nerve racking to say the least and I was not enjoying myself. The slopes were not steep and were completely within my skill set, I just didn’t feel like I had any control which doesn’t sit well with me. I felt like I had lost everything I gained during the ski season and was the scared skier just trying to make it down the slopes. After a lot of time, I finally made it down – glad to be back at the car and done for the day. I’m not giving up on backcountry skiing but it will take a while before I’m really comfortable skiing off groomed runs. I guess I have a lot of practice in my future. On the bright side, I really did enjoying skinning up – I apparently like the going up part but not the coming down part.

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