Navaho Pass - Skiing the Teanaway, May 15-16, 2021
Spring has arrived in Washington state! With longer days, more sunshine, and the snowpack moving towards an isothermal state, we are contemplating new objectives in the mountains. This blog post on "Transitions to Spring Snow Avalanche Problems" from the Gallatin National Forest Avalanche Center in Montana and this article by Donny Roth for Backcountry Magazine on spring skiing explain the kind of avalanche concerns that are common in springtime and therefore the kind of planning and observations necessary in this season.
I had done a lovely trail run on October 17, 2020, in the Wenatchee Mountains, in the area called the Teanaway inside the vast Alpine Lakes Wilderness (394,000 acres with 615 miles of trails in the Central Cascades with 700 lakes and mountain ponds). I have been using my trail runs on occasion as scouting expeditions for ski tours, in order to view and assess terrain when the conditions are snow-free and safe. I had started from the Stafford Creek trail, wandered along Navaho Pass towards Navaho Peak, then explored along the Standup Creek trail until stopped by the first snows of the winter.
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| Photos from an autumn trail run in this area |
I noted during my trail run that the zone near Navaho Pass consists of nearly tree-less gravelly plains and hillocks, and the ridgeline offered wide open slopes that would be skiable. However, the approach via the Stafford Creek trail or the Standup Creek trail to the Navaho Pass zone passes through valleys with steep walls that would pose serious avalanche risks. Plus the gravel roads to the Standup Creek and Stafford Creek trailheads are not plowed or maintained during winter, so skiing at Navaho Pass definitely would not be feasible in wintertime. The snowpack tends to be thinner and vanish faster on the east side of the Cascades so springtime seemed ideal for a ski trip to this area.
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| Illustration of the avalanche slopes along the Stafford Creek trail |
With a good weather window over the weekend of May 15-16, 2021, we opted for Navaho Pass after researching a few other options. Our objective was to hike in to the Navaho Pass zone, transition when possible to skinning rather than carrying the skis, then set up camp and explore the area on skis. Based on trip reports here and at the Turns All Year website we surmised that there would be enough snow to ski and that we could reach the trailhead for Stafford Creek in our truck.
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| Photos from our May 2021 ski trip to Navaho Pass |
We saw a lot of avalanche debris, including between mile 2 and mile 3 what was obviously the toe of a large avalanche with snow, branches, pine needles and entire trees snapped in pieces and tossed around including one tree that ended up in the top branches of another tree! This avalanche had obliterated the trail for an estimated 200 meters or so between the 2nd and 3rd miles. An amazing amount of destructive force unleashed by Mother Nature!
Although scrambling over the avalanche debris and route finding here was a chore it did smell in a wonderfully fragrant way of pine! We also spotted some other massive avalanche runouts on the far side of Stafford Creek which all seemed older, not fresh fortunately, that reinforced our opinion that venturing here in deep winter is a very bad idea.
From the 3rd mile to the junction with the Standup Creek trail the snow was not continuous but the patches did nearly connect so we grew optimistic that we could transition soon to skinning. Lots of running water from snow melt. We post-holed a lot and broke through rotten snow regularly, sometimes sinking ankle- to hip-deep.
We reached the junction with the Standup Creek trail, which was easy to spot since the signage was visible. From there it was hard to follow the Stafford Creek trail and the snow was still not continuous until about 5,000’ elevation. More post-holing and struggling with the snow awaited us...
We could have gotten on our skis and started skinning up around at 5,000 feet of elevation since the snow, although sprinkled with pine needles, branches, twigs, etc., was now pretty much continuous. However we were stubborn and we figured that we were close enough to the area where we wished to camp that transitioning would just consume more time than it would be worth. So we trudged on and found a nice campsite off the trail and a little below the meadow where folks generally camp in summertime. We set up camp on the snow, gladly shedding our heavy packs, and had a pleasant evening. Plenty of melt water flowing so no need to melt snow for water.
The temperature fell sharply at dusk and we estimated that it was in the high 20s Fahrenheit overnight. The snow was rock hard on Sunday morning at 7:00 am and 8:00 am. We noticed some softening around 9:00 am and geared up for our ski tour. Skiing to Navaho Pass and the surrounding area - dodging some bare spots and rocks-- was lovely and exciting. Round grains, somewhat slurpee-like. As I always do, I particularly enjoyed seeing an area I had seen in a different season transformed by snow.
We observed an enormous cornice on Earl Peak's east side; it must have truly been large for us to see it so clearly at such a great distance. There were also cornices of concern along the ridgeline with the saddle that comprises Navaho Pass, mostly towards the west, so we chose our ski route carefully to avoid those.
We stopped skiing around 12:30pm since the snow was getting really wet and slushy. We ended up skiing part of the way out and then hiking in our ski boots since they worked better in the snow and running meltwater than sneakers.
We saw maybe 8 hikers on Saturday and zero other overnight campers. On Sunday we saw nobody on the trail, which surprised us since the weather was sunny and pleasant. We certainly earned our turns on this trip and I was thrilled to be able to share a Teanaway adventure with Jim.
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