May 26th-28th, 2007

AREAS OF NATIONAL PARK STATUS IN NORTH AMERICA THAT MAKE YOU HIKE TO SKI DOWN:

North Cascades National Park (Washington Pass – Rainy Pass, Whistle Peak) to (Cascade Pass), Washington State, United States of America, Just South of Canada, North of Mexico, East of Asia, and West of Europe. I hope that clarifies it a bit.

FRIENDS FOREVER:

666, ZdashBoh!, Squirrel99, and Hop – along with 5 cameras, all of which took photos.

WEATHER…ER…DEGREE OF FLATLIGHT:

Clouds on day one, Rain/snow on day two, along with some bluebird on the descent on day three. Temps from 33 F to 50’s in the snow. Light winds, lack of overnight freezing, and wetslide conditions, made the trip a memorable one.

SYNOPSIS OF DAILY UPHILL HIKING/SKINNING WITH SOME SKIING:

Depart Starbucks land on Saturday at 5:00am, pick up Hop in Burlington, and proceed to drive to Rainy Pass, and start the skinning sufferfest. Next, stay in Twisp overnight on Zbo’s buddy’s lawn, and proceed to cross rivers and bootpack in the rain up a couloir the following day. Finally, proceed back to Seattle and wake up at 5:15 am to drive to the washed out road at Cascade Pass.

MUSIC TO NOD HEAD BY:

DJ Mehdi – “Signatune”

DAY ONE: Rainy Pass near Washington Pass, WA

I smelled corporate coffee from the air…

Yes, this is REI in Seattle…SQ99 needed to buy some nuts for the upcoming tour:

Meanwhile, back at the headquarters, Zbo tries to fill some ink cartridges to print out some topos for the planned tours. They never printed….

Its 5 am bitch! We’re going skiing today!

Our view from the start of the Rainy Pass skin-track…promising….very promising

Of course Zbo always starts an uphill climb with some RADN355!

A kind marmot took this pre-suffering pic….

666 loses his footing above a tree-well after saving SQ99’s life…

Zbo hiking while listening to hyphy….

666 never takes anything seriously….even when shear death was right below him

View from our first summit…someone say “winter?”

And looking to the West towards Japan…

Zbo gets first scenic dibs…I hate him.

At least he skis well…

….and from another camera’s memory device…

Looks good eh?

Hop first of many scenic “tele-turns” but however, he’s never going to convert me…

Uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, Yeahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

SQ99 takes a far right approach with pleasing scenics…

666 goes retro….

Hop finds a field of corn…

666 finds a field of avy-corn…

Zbo has the new “bigger” RedBull….I don’t.

Squirrel really wanted to boot up this thing….

Some scenics at sufferfest summit…

Zbo gets some fresh slurpee madness…

That left arm is getting an “arm shot….

Notice the slurpee slough…?

Hop makes a decision…so stoked to ski the slide path.

“God this is AWESOME!”

Before SQ99 dropped, the mountains were ripping all around us…

….and he gets a ray of sunshine to make a pretty turn

I decide that if I want the fresh before it takes out my legs, I’ll have to hit it with speed.

Zbo in a safe zone, SQ00 slays the epic snow…

Hop gathers some confidence….

We survive and make it to Winthrop for some needed diet root beer and garden burgers…

At our camping spot, Zbo dances with fire…

Hi, I’M ZBO!!!!

DAY TWO: WHISTLE PEAK, WASHINGTON

After a quick breakfast, we hit the road…

At our destination…..no comment.

Rain or shine, Hop is such a great telemark athlete…

Screw it, we’ll make it eventually…

“Where the hell am I going?”

Let the suffering begin….

Gaining altitude….yep, its raining.

My god, the sweet suffering…

Oh great, we’re moving into the clouds…

Here, Hop in his runnel hiking steeze…

Shot of the new 07/08 Stairmaster..

Hop and I laugh…at you know what.

SQ99 looking good on the SNOWY descent….

Hop starts the cloud seeding…

Did I mention that SQ99 loves to ski?

Runnel management is his fortay…

OMG LOL, SKINERD4LIFE!

Ok, so it was actually kind of fun…

666 skis down….

Runnel-ollie?

He makes a turn…

Squirrel, calm and confident…

Hop avoids the runnel of death…

Rain skiing is Rad…

Hop is Rad…

So Rad…

But 666 is Awesome…

The snow quality was a little on the wet side…

On the way home, we found a mound of snow

And to think that we almost skied here…in the sun.

WHAT DO WE DO TOMORROW????

Time for an old west espresso…

Hop is a little kid…but didn’t draw a whale.

Eastern Washington is always sunny…

Zbo drives us back to Seattle…

DAY THREE: CASCADE PASS, WASHINGTON

Pretty convenient, they have one of these near their home…

Rainforest Massive…

Um, hello there….

Please don’t maul me…

Zbo says goodbye to his supermarket plant…

Are we in Hawaii?

Are you sure?

Remember the Dragon storm in December?

Ok, back to Washington…just a couple hours of skinning, booting, suffering, hell…

So fun…

The slayer weather….

More skinning? God help me…

Hop and I were having fun at this point…

OH, THE GLORIOUS SUN, THANK YEWWWWW!

Didn’t see this on the way up…

I bought Zbo a shirt at SFO, and its not blue…

SQ99 slides without skins…

Another tele-turn by Hop…

Kind of scenic…

666 likes Washington….

…a little.

But SQ99 lives here…

And I wonder why?

Another casual day of hiking for Squirrel…

Hop in a familiar spot…

Sweet…

And makes a turn toward the Starbucks on the right.

Hop on the Extremo face…

It’s a double black diamond on the map…

SQ99 chuting it out….

Via Hop’s angle….

So many cameras, SO MUCH TIME TO ORGANIZE AND MAKE A MEGA-TR!

Zbo and 666 have their own agenda…

He’s so hot…

His skillz are ninja-like…

Dynafit Alpine Aggression….

Watch out for the wet slide dude!

Hop shows off…

…the epic corn.

Zbo and SQ99 make some Corn8’s…

666 down the crux…

…and then into the groomed section.

Hop, seriously, I’m getting sick of you…

SQ99 said he wanted to hit this, however, I reminded him that we need to actually eat some food…

Glacier steeze…

I kind of like this area…

GOOD BYE MEMORIAL DAY 2007!