Skiing towards Mowich Lake, Mount Rainier National Park: February 27, 2021
Avalanche conditions remained dangerous so we opted for a ski tour that would focus just on conditioning: skiing along State Route 165 southbound towards Mowich Lake in Mount Rainier National Park on Saturday, February 27, 2021.
According to the Washington Trails Association, from the national park border to the lake is about 5 miles: this is a low-risk ski or snowshoe route in terms of avalanche hazard and the part of SR-165 that is inside the park is closed to vehicles seasonally.
For us with the off-road prepped Land Rover, the question would be how close we could drive to the park boundary. From the split with the Carbon River Road (left fork for the Carbon River Ranger Station), SR-165 ascends steeply at first as a paved road. The pavement ends and the grade lessens as the road surface turns to muddy gravel. Surprisingly soon given the elevation of less than 3,000 feet, we reached snow. SR-165 was extremely rough: many deep potholes and increasingly deep snow. Even with our very capable vehicle we were only able to reach a point about 3 miles from the national park boundary, inside the part of the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest (near the Evans Creek ORV trailhead).
Note: the conditions for driving on SR-165 were really challenging. We passed by 2 stuck Jeep Wranglers (one of them nearly dug out and one we helped dig out) and a stuck Ford F-150 pickup truck (abandoned!) If you go, be prepared to shovel... and I wouldn't push your car too far.
With blue skies and sunshine beckoning us onwards, we skied on SR-165 towards Mowich Lake, with a detour to explore the Mountain Meadows zone. This appears to be a flat marshy area in summer, but in wintertime it was a wide open space with fantastical rippled meringue piles of snow. The snow was generally quite good quality, though sometimes wetter and stickier at the lower elevations particularly in the sun. We forgot to pull out a probe and measure its depth but I'd guess at least 6 feet, judging by the structures, gates, and signs we saw buried - possibly as deep as 10 feet.
We followed tire tracks and the tracks of snowshoers and skiers towards the park boundary; from there, the snow was untouched and pristine and we broke trail. We saw a few people along the way but once we were inside the national park, we had it to ourselves. Given our later start, plus the unexpected stop when we had to dig out the Land Rover, we didn't have the time to reach Mowich Lake, but I hope to return and camp there and ski Knapsack Pass.
Note: the conditions for driving on SR-165 were really challenging. We passed by 2 stuck Jeep Wranglers (one of them nearly dug out and one we helped dig out) and a stuck Ford F-150 pickup truck (abandoned!) If you go, be prepared to shovel... and I wouldn't push your car too far.
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