Skied Arrowhead Peak w/ Russ
Round trip 5.8 miles, (a slow) 6 hours, total elevation 3130 feet
GPS DATA
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here for TOPO.EXE v3.4.3
TPO file.
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here for MAPSOURCE.EXE v6.9.1 MPS
file.
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here for GPX text file.
GPS data includes
tracks and waypoints for parking, trail forks, etc.
Trip Report 2/26/06 Sun
It's February... in fact it's LATE February and I'm finally getting out and
doing my first backcountry ski trip of the year. What kind of lame ass skier am
I? After listening to myself say "I have too much work to do" even *I* finally
get tired of it and just make it happen.
Our goal is Arrowhead Peak. I've been nearby to Jim Hill a couple times and
heard good stories. Russ has been there several times. He's on AT gear and I'm
on tele skies.
It's a high overcast gray day with one other truck (w/o ski rack) parked in the
pull-off. Not much new snow but probably about a foot has fallen in the previous
few days and it has stayed cold. Someone has tracked the road ahead of us. The
route up and down is defined by 3 big open areas. We reached the first one and
cut uphill opting to avoid a lot of logging road in exchange for a little trail
breaking. At the top of the clearing we regained the road where there's a fork.
Tracks go west to Jim Hill and east to Arrowhead. The road leads to the bottom
of the 2nd big clearing where we stopped for lunch. We followed the track to the
top of this clearing, back into the woods and eventually where it breaks into
the left side of the third big clearing near the top.
I am totally draggin'. I've been on a bunch of winter hikes and other training
so I'm thinking I must have a bit of the flu or a cold or something. Russ is
patient and we take quite a while to get to the summit. I'm immensely thankful
we had a track to follow.
The weather gradually closed in as we reached the top and then suddenly cleared
again. Still high overcast and gray but giving big views in all direction -
notably, Jim Hill to the SW and Nason Ridge, Rock Mtn, Mt Howard to the north.
There were Zillions of wintry peaks I couldn't name everywhere.
Thankful for the better vis we started down. Picking our way carefully through
the summit snags back to the big (3rd) clearing. I nice steep even gradient and
nice snow made for nice turns. I'm still pretty low energy and making parallel
turns, knowing I'll probably go to tele-hell if I don't get off it. I'm on new
bindings... it's my first day out... all the excuses... I finally kick my knee
out in front and redeem my tele-soul with a bunch of nice linked turns. We
followed this section clear to the bottom and continued straight down through
the woods to pop out pretty quickly at the top of the number two clearing.
This clearing is less steep making for big cruising turns. At the bottom we
stopped for a snack. My energy level finally caught up with me - I was cramping
up pretty badly - so after our snack we decided to head out. From here you can
follow the road but we opted to ski straight down through the woods. After a bit
you insersect the road again and can follow it to the top of the number 1
clearing. We traversed to the west side thinking the snow might be better but it
was pretty heavy at this point and I was reduced to mostly survival parallel
turns. At the bottom of this clearing we caught the road out to the highway.
All in all it was a good ski despite my lack of energy. Good views. Varied
terrain. Nice snow. Lots of turns. Great potential for yoyo'ing next time.
Round trip 5.8 miles, (a slow) 6 hours, total 3130 elevation gain
Access and waypoint info: Drive 6.6 miles east of the Stevens Pass ski area and
park at a big plowed spot on the north side of the road. The access road up to
Jim Hill and Arrowhead is about 50 yards farther east on the other side of the
road. Follow the road. If you're interested in Jim Hill you can continue a long
way on this road but I recommend turning uphill after about .6 miles and about
50 yards
before you would otherwise cross Henry Creek (waypoint: ARR_FKJIM in the data
file). We continued on the road about for 1 mile coming to a big clear cut. We
cut uphill here (waypoint: ARR_FK01) avoiding another mile plus of road. We
regained the road (waypoint: ARR_FK02) and then near the top of the clear cut
the road forks (waypoint: ARR_FK03) going east to Arrowhead and west to Jim
Hill... We followed the road another .75 miles across the top of the BIG
clearcut, back into the woods, past a few switchbacks to about 4170 feet. Here
we left the road tracking up the left side of a big open area. At the top of the
open area turn left (waypoint: ARR_WAY02) into the woods. Bear SE (pretty much
straight uphill)... eventually you'll see the "arrowhead" rock formation above
you to the left and a while later you enter the left side the another BIG
clearing. Follow the left side of the clearing up to the summit.
