This was a Cascade Backcountry Ski Patrol day.
After putting Anastasia on the plane to Panama at six a.m., I was left with a day to fill. The usual suspects were off on other adventures, so I decided to do another recon trip in the Rampart Ridge area, which has become a bit of an obsession for me this year.
Gold Creek is, no surprise, completely melted out. I parked at the usual winter lot and took the first logging road at the toe of Rampart, about 100 yards past the lot. Going was fairly easy, with occasional pockets of thick slide alder. Views improved as I got higher up, leaving the road behind and going off trail for a while through thick alder and steep dirt. Connected again with the logging road that wraps around the base of Mt Margaret and ultimately to the top of Rampart, though I skirted off toward Lake Laura at about 4200 feet.
Given the thin cover, I officially abandoned hopes of getting up toward Alta, so I had a long lunch in the valley and then finished the climb to Lake Laura and onto the lower slopes of pt. 5606, which looks to have some excellent skiing on it. I got about 500 feet of quality turns on west-facing slopes before hitting the valley floor and cruising the logging road back toward Margaret. Caught a quick button-hook to connect to the lower end of the road I'd gained earlier in the day, climbed back up to where I'd first met it, then plunged off downhill until I hit the lower road. Back to the car at 3:00. Beautiful day out there and I finally feel like I've figured out the best way to get into that area in the winter.
As an aside, it's rare that I go out on solo trips, though I seem to seek them out a bit more now that Anastasia is traveling with some regularity. It's a different experience, to be sure. I traveled at my own pace (which isn't all that much faster or slower) and took a lot more pictures and short breaks -- perhaps because this was really a reconnaissance trip for winter fun. Still, it's an interesting change from the norm, though I think I prefer some company more often than not.
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