Thursday, March 13, 2008

White Pass... Yukon Skiing!

As any with most good plan that we came up with, we didn't follow the plan of stopping at Cassiar Mountain where there is suppose to have good skiing. The mountain barely had snow on them, so we kept driving north. We reached Whitehorse in the afternoon, spending some time in the library looking for something to ski around... driving more would mean losing another day of skiing on the road!


According to a search on telemarktips.com most of the good skiing in Yukon is concentrated around White Pass (just by the Chilkoot Trail National Historic Site). There is a pyramid shaped peak just West of the pass called Feather Peak.


Reaching the summit is just a matter of a quick skin up (about 1100m from car to summit) that ends up by bootpacking. The snow was wind affected so the bootpack wasn't a big deal (red = hike up, green = ski)!


We skied down the top east side of the peak before cutting toward the backside which still had some good snow on it!


We spent our second day at White Pass on Log Cabin Mountain... a short skiing (about 850m) day before leaving for Valdez! On our way up we found a lot of icy spots, but fortunately we found some terrain features that were holding about 10cm of snow all the way to the bottom...


Summing it all, White Pass has some weirdly shaped mountains, mostly alpine terrain and is located in a windy corridor. But for whom is willing to search a little bit, good snow can stays trapped in terrain features for quite some time. We even saw some interesting couloirs on our way out...

Now leaving Yukon for Alaska, stay tuned!! :-)

Alexis

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Alexis, your beard is out of control! You will blend in with the grizzly bears. Have fun in AK, go big! I'll be in Whistler for the next 2 weeks, but it seems as though we will still be many miles apart. Ski fast. Drink faster.

Matt Kinney said...

Just found your blog. Glad you're coming to Valdez. There are only 2 telemarkers left here!! but still would love to ski with you while you are here. Great trip in review and wecome to the .... chugach. If we can help in any way let us know. We got wifi you can poach on for your blog. Have fun. New snow tonight.

Matt
Thompson Pass
Mt. Chalet.

Anonymous said...

WOW, j'ai bien hâte d'aller dans l'ouest à lire votre voyage! Si le Yéti veut bien me laisser partir un jour....

Anonymous said...

I love yukon!! that is so cool! Winter is a special time of the year for Yukon. For avid skiers, the Yukon's bountiful backcountry is a dream-come-true. Whether you get your thrills from cross-country, alpine touring or telemarking, a lodge- or city-based trip will have you raving about the powers of perfect powder. You can also head outdoors on snowshoe a truly novel way to experience the beauty of the northern landscape.
You'll find a number of choice trails waiting for you to explore on cross country skis or snowshoes. There are groomed and ungroomed trails all over the region; from urban trails to heli-skiing and out-of-the-way wilderness trails.

Anonymous said...

Nice blog and pictures of a great trip.Seeing you pictures reminded me a trip we made in the Yukon and Alaska in 2008 too. Maybe we crossed your tracks. It is truly an amazing place for skiers. Hope I could go again one winter soon.
I am already checking on internet to prepare my next trip and I found that : http://yukonbackcountryskiing.com/fr/photo-gallery/ I am even more excited.

Phil