East elk to west elk pass traverse
Trip date: Monday Feb 12, 2024
Submitted by MaSid
Particpants:
Discussion:
Given a potential high pressure ridge lining up with the coming weekend, it was time to finally get the circuit done and have a fresh track available. To ensure success, AT gear was used. Turned out to be a lucky phenomenal day. -6 at 830, but with cloud to keep things cool to start. Zero on return at 230. The fresh grooming on elk pass trail was solid and fast on AT gear with wax. Rebroke the trail through Patterson meadows (ankle deep). Good and solid for all skis. Not so much east elk. Still looks like December in there, bush, open water, and so-so snow for the first half. Able to use wax for the first meadow section but needed skins for the narrow drainage given the bottomless pole plants in the worst places. Looked like it might start to clear, and by the time I got to the viewpoint: there were views! Sunnied up even more for the descent and west elk pass. Couldn’t ask for better timing. First few turns found some punchy crust so aimed for a slightly mellower line (not the LT line) and crust improved. Lots of logging detritus and other veg poking up but avoidable. Quite possible for a good skier to descend with LT gear I think if the crust stays intact. But you probably still want skins for getting into east elk and up the cutline. Snowfa HQ in west elk did not fully survive the meltdown. It’s just a bench currently and didn’t get added to today. The lunch log is pretty much bare wood.