03-22-25
Gary
was free for a trip on Saturday. We had managed to get in two xc ski
trip so far this winter. Well, now it was the start of spring. The
forecast for Amabilis Mountain had 20-30 mph winds in the morning but
the forecasts have been so far wrong about wind we chose to take a
shot. In the morning, Hyak showed a 3 mph wind. We headed east. In mid
February, we skied the course below Amabilis then up to the "Y"
junction. This day we wanted to try for the summit ridge. It rained on
Friday and snowed overnight. By 7:15 the groomer was finished and put
up a report. We reached the Cabin Creek Sno-Park at 8:10 am. There was
only one car in the lot. Two more cars arrived before we headed out. It
was snowing lightly as we walked across the overpass to the trails. The
route was freshly groomed but enough snow had fallen since then to
cover the tracks. There was on inch or so atop the track. So much for a
fresh smoothly graded track. We headed down the main road and turned up
the Amabilis Mountain Road. The only tracks were two boot tracks
heading up the middle of the road. Since there was only one car parked
ahead of us they must have been the people. We followed the partly
buried groomed track on the right side of the road. In places the boot
paths went right up our track. It was not ideal but not too bad in the
thin soft snow.
It was 34F when we started. As we ascended, the snow let up and then stopped. I was working hard enough that just a long sleeve shirt was enough to keep warm. The temperature just above freezing was ideal for having icy snow stick to the bottoms of our skis. At our first stop I put fresh wax on my skis. That helped for a while. Sliding smoothly is a lot easier than having chucks of ice on the ski bottoms. I took over breaking trail and it was not much more difficult than following. As we continued higher a skate skier passed us. He was the first person we had seen. Now we had a skate track and the two boot paths ahead of us. We reached the "Y" junction at 9:42 am. We were 2.7 miles up from the car. We took a break looking out at no views. It was just clouds. Two more skaters arrived. One decided to go on and the other stayed. We headed up the left road soon after her.
The first thing I noticed is that the boot tracks ended and snowshoe tracks began. Now we had a track up the groomed ski tracks set by the lone skier. The snow was now deeper and she was not longer skating. That was good for us. I had no idea how the descend would go with deeper very wet and heavy snow mixed with snowshoe tracks. The grade is mostly moderate though it is a bit steeper higher up. The clouds were thick enough to make it darker even when out of the forest. The earlier snow never did fall again. There is a viewpoint on an open turn near the top. We stopped for a moment to look at the continuing lack of any views. The trees were lightly flocked at the bottom but now they were heavily flocked. It was looking like a real winter wonderland at the start of spring. We reached the ridge top at 10:43 am. We could see the warming hut a short distance from the road. It was half buried by snow. A track to it was also buried by fresh snow. The one skier and two snowshoers were ahead of us farther up the summit ridge. We stopped for a short break.
So far we had covered 4.2 miles with about 1600' of gain. There would not be any more views on the ridge. There would not be any sunshine. Thankfully, the high winds forecast were absent even on the ridge top. We decided to continue to the 4.5 mile point and then come back for lunch in the warming hut. The ridge slowly climbs higher as we skied up through deepening snow. It was still not a lot over the early morning grooming. Just past 4.5 miles we turned around. Skiing down to the hut was interesting. The snow was very heavy. Turning with our non-edged touring skies was challenging. I was not sure how the four mile downhill was going to go. We skied over to the hut and dropped down to the level of the door. Gary took off his skis and tried to open the door. It barely budged. It was not locked it just would not open. He put a hard shove into it and it opened. We soon realized that the door frame and the hut were no longer a perfect rectangle. Whether it was all the snow piled up on the windward side or the hut settling in one corner, the door frame was way out of true. The hut is a nice spot out of the weather. There were seven plastic chairs inside.
On one side of the hut snow was sliding off the roof. It would slide off and when it was far enough it broke off and fell. This continued the entire time we were inside. The result was snow on the windward side all the way up to the roof. No snow could fall off. On the leeward side the roof was nearly bare. Or lunch break lasted from 11:09 am to 11:46 am. It was still early but we were ready to start our descent. Back out on the road, we saw more tracks. Several groups look to have gone by or reached the ridge and descended. The one ski and the snowshoe track were now a mess of tracks. The snow was mostly torn up. We would have a lot of tracks to ski through on the way down. I was not comfortable at first. The steeper start and no easy way to snowplow made it interesting. Having only done one flat ski trip and the previous trip half way up Amabilis did not have me feeling ready for a long downhill in these conditions. After getting around a couple sharp corners I felt a lot better.
Five weeks earlier we did the smoothly groomed descent from the "Y" junction wishing for better waxed skis to go faster. This time the only goal was to stay on my feet. I never felt entirely at ease but it became much better as we descended. Also the amount of fresh wet snow decreased. I was glad to reach the "Y" junction still on my feet. The 1.5 miles down took us 31 minutes. That is probably the slowest time I have ever done. After a short break at the "Y", we headed down. We did see people coming up but it was not very crowded. That was fine with me. In places there had been enough skiers going down to leave bare spots allowing me to snowplow around corners. It was better than above. Tough snow means more tired legs and we were hurting a bit near the bottom. We reached the main road at 1:01 pm. It was a short ski back to the start of the track, then we walked back across the highway overpass to the car. At the highway we noticed traffic eastbound was not moving and was packed up as far as we could see. Westbound traffic was moving well.
The lot was mostly full when we returned but there were quite a few spaces left. That was unusual. The forecast was not good and the reality was just fine. Many folks seemed have avoided this popular area and we had fewer others than expected on our route. For the day we skied 9 miles with 1700' of elevation gain and loss. In many ways the loss was harder than the gain. It was a challenge to not fall and we both succeeded at that. We were tired and had no desire to ski the road at the bottom for more mileage. I was glad to get in three xc ski trips this year after none last year. They were all a lot of fun. The descend down Amabilis Mountain is fast and exciting with good snow conditions and slow and challenging with bad conditions. Both are still a lot of fun.
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Trips - 2025
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It was 34F when we started. As we ascended, the snow let up and then stopped. I was working hard enough that just a long sleeve shirt was enough to keep warm. The temperature just above freezing was ideal for having icy snow stick to the bottoms of our skis. At our first stop I put fresh wax on my skis. That helped for a while. Sliding smoothly is a lot easier than having chucks of ice on the ski bottoms. I took over breaking trail and it was not much more difficult than following. As we continued higher a skate skier passed us. He was the first person we had seen. Now we had a skate track and the two boot paths ahead of us. We reached the "Y" junction at 9:42 am. We were 2.7 miles up from the car. We took a break looking out at no views. It was just clouds. Two more skaters arrived. One decided to go on and the other stayed. We headed up the left road soon after her.
The first thing I noticed is that the boot tracks ended and snowshoe tracks began. Now we had a track up the groomed ski tracks set by the lone skier. The snow was now deeper and she was not longer skating. That was good for us. I had no idea how the descend would go with deeper very wet and heavy snow mixed with snowshoe tracks. The grade is mostly moderate though it is a bit steeper higher up. The clouds were thick enough to make it darker even when out of the forest. The earlier snow never did fall again. There is a viewpoint on an open turn near the top. We stopped for a moment to look at the continuing lack of any views. The trees were lightly flocked at the bottom but now they were heavily flocked. It was looking like a real winter wonderland at the start of spring. We reached the ridge top at 10:43 am. We could see the warming hut a short distance from the road. It was half buried by snow. A track to it was also buried by fresh snow. The one skier and two snowshoers were ahead of us farther up the summit ridge. We stopped for a short break.
So far we had covered 4.2 miles with about 1600' of gain. There would not be any more views on the ridge. There would not be any sunshine. Thankfully, the high winds forecast were absent even on the ridge top. We decided to continue to the 4.5 mile point and then come back for lunch in the warming hut. The ridge slowly climbs higher as we skied up through deepening snow. It was still not a lot over the early morning grooming. Just past 4.5 miles we turned around. Skiing down to the hut was interesting. The snow was very heavy. Turning with our non-edged touring skies was challenging. I was not sure how the four mile downhill was going to go. We skied over to the hut and dropped down to the level of the door. Gary took off his skis and tried to open the door. It barely budged. It was not locked it just would not open. He put a hard shove into it and it opened. We soon realized that the door frame and the hut were no longer a perfect rectangle. Whether it was all the snow piled up on the windward side or the hut settling in one corner, the door frame was way out of true. The hut is a nice spot out of the weather. There were seven plastic chairs inside.
On one side of the hut snow was sliding off the roof. It would slide off and when it was far enough it broke off and fell. This continued the entire time we were inside. The result was snow on the windward side all the way up to the roof. No snow could fall off. On the leeward side the roof was nearly bare. Or lunch break lasted from 11:09 am to 11:46 am. It was still early but we were ready to start our descent. Back out on the road, we saw more tracks. Several groups look to have gone by or reached the ridge and descended. The one ski and the snowshoe track were now a mess of tracks. The snow was mostly torn up. We would have a lot of tracks to ski through on the way down. I was not comfortable at first. The steeper start and no easy way to snowplow made it interesting. Having only done one flat ski trip and the previous trip half way up Amabilis did not have me feeling ready for a long downhill in these conditions. After getting around a couple sharp corners I felt a lot better.
Five weeks earlier we did the smoothly groomed descent from the "Y" junction wishing for better waxed skis to go faster. This time the only goal was to stay on my feet. I never felt entirely at ease but it became much better as we descended. Also the amount of fresh wet snow decreased. I was glad to reach the "Y" junction still on my feet. The 1.5 miles down took us 31 minutes. That is probably the slowest time I have ever done. After a short break at the "Y", we headed down. We did see people coming up but it was not very crowded. That was fine with me. In places there had been enough skiers going down to leave bare spots allowing me to snowplow around corners. It was better than above. Tough snow means more tired legs and we were hurting a bit near the bottom. We reached the main road at 1:01 pm. It was a short ski back to the start of the track, then we walked back across the highway overpass to the car. At the highway we noticed traffic eastbound was not moving and was packed up as far as we could see. Westbound traffic was moving well.
The lot was mostly full when we returned but there were quite a few spaces left. That was unusual. The forecast was not good and the reality was just fine. Many folks seemed have avoided this popular area and we had fewer others than expected on our route. For the day we skied 9 miles with 1700' of elevation gain and loss. In many ways the loss was harder than the gain. It was a challenge to not fall and we both succeeded at that. We were tired and had no desire to ski the road at the bottom for more mileage. I was glad to get in three xc ski trips this year after none last year. They were all a lot of fun. The descend down Amabilis Mountain is fast and exciting with good snow conditions and slow and challenging with bad conditions. Both are still a lot of fun.
 Sno-Park Lot |
 Start Of Ski Route |
 I Am Out Ahead |
 Looking Back |
 Tracks Are Partly Buried |
 Looking Downhill |
 Boot Path In Track |
 Gary Enjoys View |
 View From The "Y" |
 Above The "Y" |
 Another Viewpoint |
 Hut Is In Sight |
 View From Ridge Top |
 Nearing Turnaround Spot |
 Heading Back To Hut |
 Inside Warming Hut |
 Indoor Seating |
 Me In The Warming Hut |
 Door Has A Big Gap |
 Snowy Hut |
 Untracked Snow |
 Snowy Amabilis Mt. |
 Snowy Side Of Hut |
 Gary Leaves Hut |
 Clear View At Last |
 Route Down Snow |
Trips - 2025
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