Maiden Peak Shelter 1/18/14-1/19/13

Spring Skiing in January

In case you haven't noticed, it has not snowed very much in Oregon this winter. Currently we're sitting at around 53% of average in the Willamette Basin. The Deschutes Basin is even worse at 49% of average. So, turn your pajamas inside out, do your snow dance, give away your powder skis...whatever it takes. We need snow.

 With warm temps and sunny skies turning last weekend's storm to mush/suncrust/dirt, it seemed skiing anything steep was out of the cards this weekend. So, Jake, Matt, and I headed out to the Maiden Peak Hut on Willamette Pass. We knew there wouldn't be much skiable terrain on the hike, but the goal was to get the hell out of Dodge more than anything. Disclaimer: If you ski with me, the likelihood that a standard ski trip will become somewhat of an adventure is high... Things never seem to go quite as planned.

Maiden Peak hut is a free, first come, first serve hut located in the Deschutes National Forest. It is around 6 miles from Highway 58 along the Pacific Crest Trail, or 6 miles from the Golds Lake Sno-Park (also on Highway 58). It is maintained by the Willamette Backcountry Ski Patrol, and it is pretty schwanky as far as Cascade huts are concerned. In addition to the wood oven, benches, and table on the ground floor, there are lights! The hut has solar panels, which provide electric lighting...a welcome sight when you're rolling in after dark (which is what happened to us).

We got to Willamette Pass ski area at around 2:30pm and we were on the snow by 3:00pm. Skies were clear and sunny, and it was warm. Very warm. The snow was spotty for the first three miles up to the Rosary Lakes. In many places we were skiing on no more than an inch or two of snow. However, after we turned the corner and reaching the Rosary Lakes Basin, the coverage improved tremendously. We arrived at the southern most lake a little after 4:00pm.

Things were going smoothly until we reached the Maiden Peak Saddle. It was 5:00pm and the January sun was already below the horizon. Somewhere along the way, we had missed the cutoff for the PCT...a minor navigational error. A second navigational error occurred when we opted to ski off the north side of the saddle rather than taking a closer look at the map. From the Maiden Peak Saddle, the PCT skirts East of a little knob, and follows the ridge line North, directly to the Maiden Peak Shelter. By skiing off the North side of the saddle, we ended up on the wrong side of the ridge. By the time we figured that out, it was completely dark.

We traversed below the ridge for the next two hours, winding or way through the dark forest. The combination of dense trees, downfall, and total darkness (beyond the short radius of our headlamps) made route finding challenging. Luckily we had Matt to break trail for us.

It was with relief that we finally saw the warm light of the hut. We were tired, hungry, thirsty, and mostly just ready just to be done skiing. We entered to find three other visitors--Marcus, David and Anya. They had snowshoed in from Gold's Lake.

We quickly set about boiling water to make dinner. We ate, drank some whisky, talked about the important things in life (snowpack, gear, trips, etc). We were 6 miles from the road, but we were totally alone in our own little universe. The moon shined brightly through the windows of the hut as we slowly pealed away from the fire and into our sleeping bags.

I had some weird dreams that I don't really remember.

We woke up to a freezing cold hut. The fire had burned out overnight. I woke first and began to get the fire going. David woke shortly after me and went outside to chop some more wood. We quickly (but not quickly enough) had a fire going, and the cold air slowing began to warm. I ate a breakfast of coffee, a kitkat bar, trail mix, tea, and a shot of whisky. If you have never started your day with that combination, I recommend it.

Skiing slush

It was 11:00am before we finally got back on the snow. We quickly found the PCT, and followed it back to the Maiden Peak saddle. What took us over two hours the night before, took us a little over an hour in daylight. It was another sunny day, and we could see Diamond Peak to the south. We reached the saddle, and to our surprise, we found some skiable snow. The snow was heavy, wet, and sticky. But skiable nonetheless. We happily removed our skins, and skied down to North Rosemary Lake. By the lake the snow was still cold, and we quickly slid along the shoreline. We poled our way along the lakes, and down the gradual trail back to Highway 58. The combination of downhill and improved route finding allowed us to nearly halve the time it took to travel between the car and the hut.

After some gatorade, snacks, and $1 slices of pizza from the Willamette Pass ski area cafeteria, and we were back on the road. The weekend was nowhere near long enough. But it was great to get out in the woods, on the snow, and have a little adventure. Work this week is going to be a challenge...