WA Pass Skiing – Portly Bowl
At Washington Pass
Dec 2, 2023
Washington Pass had just closed to cars Thursday night, which meant it is now open to snowmobiles. Michael, Phil and I started at the Silverstar Gate Saturday morning. There was about 1ft of snow on the road, and we had to tip the sleds on their sides and push them under to get past the short gate. I think it was designed for older snowmobiles, while newer ones are too tall.
The route
We rode up to WA Pass and parked near the Blue Lake trailhead turnoff. We then skied a lap in Portly Bowl and over to the Whistler Nose then back down to the highway. It was fun waist-deep powder. We skied on the road back to the sleds then rode down by sunset.
That night I drove back around to Cascade River Road near Marblemount by 3am for a road-clearing trip the next day with Paul. We logged out Cascade River Road (driveable to Eldo gate then sledded up to Boston Basin Trailhead), Suiattle River Road (driveable to the end), and North Fork Sauk Road (driveable to the end now).
© 2023, egilbert@alum.mit.edu. All rights reserved.
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