 Sergio,
Jerry and I headed out early on Saturday morning in search of some corn
to cruise. We arrived at the trailhead in just under 2.5 hours from Everett.
The snow in the trees was solid and icy, but once we broke
out onto the lower slopes it began to get a little softer. We
arrived in the basin below the Liberty Bell Group and the sun started to
shine down and warm us up (as well as the snow). No one was visible on any of
the alpine routes on the Liberty Bell group, so we made our way towards
the col above Blue Lake where we made our high point. The death
cornice was quite large, and we booted up the steep slope as quickly as possible. Once on top of the col the views were fantastic
and we took a break and had some food. I then dropped in and tested out
the corn which was fantastic! Crappy flat light caused some difficult
turns some 500 feet below the col. Once down in the lower basin we could
see the trail up towards the notch at Copper Pass. Sergio and I decided
to go up to the col and Yo Yo some slopes as Jerry booted back up to the
Blue Lake Col to ski the same terrain again.
The
sun and it's heat were plain hot,
and we were working hard. We decided to just continue up to Copper Pass
and wait for Jerry there. Once we got below the steep slope towards the
pass the weather started to turn on us. As soon as the sun went away the
snow crusted up quickly and was not the precious corn we had just
enjoyed. I got to the pass and waited for Sergio and Jerry. Suprisingly
Jerry was only about 45 minutes behind me, and once he arrived he told us
the ski down for him from the Blue Lake Col was not the same as we had done it less than an hour before. The cold wind that had picked
up turned the upper layer into a thin crust.
We dropped in on the
other side and made a b-line for the hairpin turn on Highway 20. The basin
had some enjoyable skiing, but started to become mashed potatoes quite quickly,
and then became survival skiing in the trees. The flat portion of the trail was
fun and fast and we were able to ski all the way to the highway where I
was able to hitch a ride back to the Blue Lake trailhead and return to the
hairpin to pack up our stuff. The
key to doing this tour is make sure you can get up there right after the
pass opens. We waited 3 days, therefore it had been tracked out already.....
Trail Conditions: Click
Here
Road Conditions: Click
Here
Web References:
www.sverdina.com
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