I-90 April 4, 2002
Big snow year - time for another before-work-taking-advantage-of-nice-weather
attempt at the south slope of Banana Ridge. The last
time a few years ago
found Matt and I sketching down 1500 feet of somehwat exposed icy terrain that never softened
in the strong wind, followed by another 1500ft of avalanche debris. Hopefully this year would
be better, and the 8000ft freezing level promised softer snow.
Banana Ridge and the goods
Unfortunately we were stopped by an avalanche across road 9031, about 3 miles before our
desired start point. No problem if we had a whole day, but we had to remain true
to the before-work ethic and find something quick to access.
Avalanche across FR 9031
So, uh, we thought "hey, why don't we climb this chute that slid onto the road?"
Looked pretty similar to the one we had wanted to go to. We were somewhere under
Bandera. Bandera has some good slopes higher up, no?
We hiked up a hundred feet or so of snow in the gorge, until it ran out, and was
replaced with the liquid form of snow, plus slippery logs and general nastiness.
It was curvy up ahead, so we couldn't see too far, but there was no snow (solid form) in
sight. Too early to turn around, so we headed off into the somewhat brushy forest,
resigning ourselves to our fate (i.e. that we couldn't be able to ski a continuous
run all the way back to the car). We climbed a few hundred feet. Finally, we sort of
got a view of the gully ahead. No snow for like, 1000ft, and it looked sort of
cliffy. Ok, this is pointless. Turn around.
Hmm... why am I here?
Back at the truck, it was only shortly past 7am, so we looked for other options.
It was a beautiful morning and we had to find something to ski.
From across the highway, the massive clearcuts called to us. Normally we wouldn't listen
to them, but on this morning, they were loud above the din of I90. We could have just driven 10 minutes up to
the pass and found stuff, but where's the adventure in that?
Down to the Tinkham exit, up to the McClennan Butte trailhead. It looked like one of
those clearcuts made it down to the Iron Horse trail - all we needed to do was to
get up there and walk along it to find it.
Slog slog slog...
20 minutes or so later we put our skis on and began skinning up. It was difficult skinning
with the icy snow down here. But without skis you postholed. Perfect ski crampon
conditions, but I had left them in the truck.
Mount Kent, "Eiger of exit 42"
We reached a flattish spot about 2000ft higher where we stopped. The upper section
had some pretty slick traversing, but the snow was corning up.
Soaking up some rays
We relaxed for half an hour or so, enjoying the views of the peaceful morning, and the
hum of I90 below. There was a good view of Mt Kent from nearby, and I watched some
snow sluffs come down the north face.
Professionally edited film of Matt's amazing ski descent with live band (259KB)
Finally time to go. The upper 500ft were pretty sweet smooth almost-corn. Then it
deteriorated into almost survival skiing. Deep slush, then somewhat crusty wet snow.
Oh well, still fun.