Hyak Backcountry Skiing 12.19.15
Wyeth planned to take Danielle out to use her new backcountry gear for the first day. Aaron, Luke, and I joined as well so that Luke could get his first backcountry day too. I thought skinning up and skiing down a ski resort that hadn’t yet opened sounded like a great activity for my skill level. Even better, we had a casual timeline for the day. It had been dumping snow in the mountains for most of the week leading up to Saturday. Wyeth and Danielle picked us up about 8am and then we got Luke at the park and ride before joining the masses heading to/over Snoqualmie Pass. One sort of jack knifed truck in the right lane/shoulder slowed us down quite a bit, but we eventually made it through and parked in the lot of Summit East.
Gearing up in the parking lot. New skins, beacons, and skis to use
We spent a little extra time in the parking lot gearing up, making sure everyone had working beacons, putting skins on, and figuring out layers. It was even sort of sunny (through the clouds at least) so sun screen went on as well. We started up the groomed cat track from the base, then broke off to the skin track heading up Hyak Face. It wasn’t ridiculously crowded but there were several groups of people out enjoying the snow and nice weather with us. I mostly noticed the other backcountry skiers but there were cross country skiers and snowshoers too. The skin track was actually pretty nice, fairly gradual with wide turns – no kick turns required. I still had to concentrate and work a little harder through the steep sections, but otherwise the skinning went pretty well – besides the fact that I’m really out of shape.
Skinning up Hyak face
We did 1000’ up to the top and that kicked my butt. Aaron stayed back with me as we were a few minutes behind the rest of the group. At the top we grabbed some snacks, stashed our skins, got our shells, helmets, and some downhill ski mittens out before starting down the deep powder. I skied down just a little from the top, reverting back to my power wedge to try and feel comfortable with turning. After that I did a bit better with making some bigger traverses across the slope but using the power wedge a lot less, it was almost like I was skiing like a normal person! Skiing in a ton of snow is always hard work so we skied about half way down to the large groomed cat track, then geared up again for another skin up to the top.
Skiing down Hyak face
We made pretty good time on the way up, I think everyone had found their groove for skinning. When we topped out this time Aaron and Wyeth did a little beacon demonstration along with search practice. After that we transitioned to ski mode again and headed down some largely untracked snow. I was actually feeling somewhat comfortable and was having fun. We took several breaks on the way down to the bottom to give our legs some time to stop burning. We called it a day after the two runs, ending on a positive note of having some fun in the snow on a pretty nice day. We even had some views of the surrounding mountains intermittently throughout the day. We stopped at the Commonwealth near the Central Summit for some tasty lunch on the way home, of course ending with a little ice cream from Dairy Queen.
Fun day playing in lots of snow
GPS track here
Skin tracks up and ski tracks down Hyak Face