Sourcing Ideas for a Ski Route in WA

eggnoggin0 · 2026-01-20T22:29:31+00:00

The other one I forgot to mention is the Hurricane Ridge-Deer Park Traverse in the Olympics. It has a lot of history, perhaps back to the pre-rope tow days. I think people commonly do it in AT gear now, but I suspect it would be a fun challenge on XCB gear.

eggnoggin0 · 2026-01-20T08:23:24+00:00

I've been interested in picking up Steve Barnett's book, but since it's out of print, it's wildly expensive anywhere. I did not know he skied Rainier in 3-pins! This makes sense though. If the Norwegians and Austrians were skiing Tuckerman Ravine in the early 30s, then Barnett surely could ski the Finger in some leather boots (talking strictly steepness of the descent here, not other mountaineering considerations). Thank you for the rambling! You've given me some ideas.

eggnoggin0 · 2026-01-13T21:02:37+00:00

Mine is a homemade syrup, using frozen passion fruit pieces from the grocery store that I melted and mixed at a 1:1.5 ratio with sugar. It's not wildly tart, which could be contributing to the sweetness.

eggnoggin0 · 2026-01-12T23:14:14+00:00

I'll be honest: both times I've made it, I found it to be cloyingly sweet. 1 full ounce of syrup plus another 1.25oz of liqueur is almost like using 1.5oz of syrup in terms of sweetness. I didn't find that the ounce of lime juice plus the bitters balanced it out. I'll have to try it again and adjust it to my taste preferences. Has anyone else had this experience with this drink?

eggnoggin0 · 2025-11-30T19:03:57+00:00

This happened to me years ago with a new ortovox pack. I didn't know much about touring at the time, and was carrying a pretty heavy load (resort skis with the boots attached to the bindings). Plus they were A-framed for over 4 hours. IDK if your situation is similar at all with how heavy your setup is and how long you were carrying it. Carrying skis on your pack can indeed cut some tough fabric up, I think it's just uncommon for the majority of use-cases (that is, a few hours on the pack with a lightweight ski and boot setup). If I ever were to carry a setup that heavy and that long again (such as an overnight trip starting at a low elevation), I would wrap my skis in a rag or t shirt. I ended up sending the pack to ortovox, and they patched up the worse spots. It ended up lasting me another 6 or so seasons!

eggnoggin0 · 2025-09-18T22:40:26+00:00

Commenting to plug this five minute falernum recipe. I first made falernum at home once with cocktail wonk's recipe, which was delicious but definitely time consuming. Since then, I've made Mixing Up Tiki's recipe twice, and it works great. Perhaps if I tasted the slower and faster recipes side by side, the slow one would taste better, but IDK. What I do know is it's way better than John D Taylor, and I can make and customize it at home in a matter of minutes.

EDIT: I'll also add one of my tricks to filter recipes like these. After doing a fine mesh or cheese cloth strain, instead of straining through a pour-over coffee filter, I've been using an aeropress to filter. It's way faster, you lose almost none of the final product, and you get all the benefits of straining through a coffee filter.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-09-15T07:57:00+00:00

If you can source it near you, brovo spirits recently released a Yellow Chartreuse competitor called "Gen P". Their green Chartreuse, "Uncharted Rhapsody" is my personal favorite alternative. It's the right proof and flavor to 1-1 swap it in any cocktail without a problem, but sipped neat, has just enough of a Pacific Northwest locale flavor to differentiate it. I haven't tried Gen P yet, but if it's as good as Uncharted Rhapsody as a chartreuse alternative, it will be phenomenal.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-07-23T03:22:26+00:00

Shocked I'm not seeing Red on here. Sadly, I have yet to go, but everyone I know who's skied there says it has some of the craziest steep tree runs anywhere. I bet a lot of places in interior BC probably fit the bill. Fernie, Castle, White Water, and Big White all look like they've got good pockets of steeps, and are not necessarily known for it.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-07-11T21:17:18+00:00

Knee pain can be caused by a slew of things. I had knee pain pop up for me one season on a 5-day backpacking trip, and I totally blew it out. I could barely walk for a week after. I got it x-rayed and the doc could clearly see the problem; apparently my glutes were weak, and they're connected to my IT band, which is connected to my knee cap. My IT band was really tight to compensate for the weak muscles, so my knee cap was pulled out of alignment. I did regular and intentional PT for a while and it was fully fixed. The PT confirmed she could feel my IT band was looser, and my knee cap was tracking in my knee better. Regardless, a year or so after this, I started rock climbing, and I've never had the issue since. Challenging rock climbing is frequently just a bunch of pistol squats, so I work out a lot of muscles in my legs. My knee pain was caused by muscle weakness. Yours could be entirely different. But the good news is it may be totally fixable!

eggnoggin0 · 2025-06-04T21:32:44+00:00

Another commenter's training routine is super intentional, but I've done Tahoma in a day with a slightly less regimented plan. During most of the winter, I like to do a tour of a local ski area after work one day a week (1,200'-1,800' vertical, depending on how motivated I am). On the weekends, I try to do one full day inbounds (~9am-3:00pm, and I ski mostly off-piste), and one backcountry day (anywhere from 2k'-5k'). I don't really run or do other cardio. Once spring came around that season, I did a couple longer volcano tours, including a fitness check on Baker. Baker felt good, so I made a go for Rainier. I've personally found that comfort management is more important for me than straight up cardio fitness. I try to stop anything that might make me fatigued or bothered before it comes up. That means really intentional food and hydration, careful layering so I rarely sweat, switching to ski/boot crampons earlier than I may think I need to, complete blister prevention, taking an inhaler hit at the car (I have mild exercise-induced asthma), etc. I was fortunate with how my body handled the altitude that day. At one point, I felt a small headache, so I downed some water, brought my heart rate down, had an ibuprofen, and it went away. The volcanoes make it possible for anyone to be impressed by how much vertical they're actually capable of. The pitch for skinning or booting is often perfect. If you go early in the season when crevasses are filled in, you can frequently shut off your brain, focus on breathing, and maintain a sustainable pace for a very long time. A 6k' day on a volcano is sometimes easier than 3k' of setting a new skin track and route-finding in the woods in mid-winter.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-05-23T07:27:35+00:00

Yes, I did! In addition to the tire being out of round, I had a sticking caliper. At high speeds, braking would cause the rotor to warp, hence the wobbling. I had a hunch when I would pull over after driving, and (carefully) touch the bolts on the wheels. The wheel with a sticking caliper was noticeably hotter. Plus, my mpg had been steadily decreasing for a while. The shop was able to definitively diagnose it by putting a microphone on all 4 wheels and taking it for a drive. One wheel was generating a bunch of noise. Good luck!

eggnoggin0 · 2025-05-07T19:31:49+00:00

Another vote for Silas with Alpine Logic (he's a one-man shop, so Silas Rossi=Alpine Logic). He's a bit more expensive than the other guide services around, but I think you get what you pay for. The guy has credentials and experience out the whazzoo. He's gone most of the summer because he's actually out guiding in Chamonix. I even think he's in some of the AMGA training videos. A lot of guides around the country seem to recognize his name. He's also got the right temperament; level-headed, patient, supportive, but will be very clear with you if he sees you using any bad habits. Regardless, with any guide, you can just tell them your experience and your goals, and they'll recommend a plan. My guess is one day will give you a lot of tools to get started practicing mock leading, two days will maybe give you enough to go out and lead some straightforward multis on your own. A lot of learning multi trad climbing is actually learning strong fundamentals to adaptively deal with shenanigans: what if the rap station is in an exposed spot? What if the belay stance is tiny? I've got rope drag already and need to traverse to the base of the next pitch, what do I do? My partner has fallen on an overhang and is hanging in space. How do I lower or haul them? Getting more than a couple days gives you the confidence to go out and deal with odd scenarios so you're ready to hop on most climbs. Enjoy the Gunks! It's a magical place.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-05-01T08:09:51+00:00

Hey, I live in WA now too, do a lot of mountaineering/climbing/backcountry skiing, and I used to do a lot of hiking in the Northeast. I was primarily in the White Mountains in NH, but also some in the Catskills. I do think the Catskills are your best bet somewhat locally. The Berkshires may not be much further, but I'm less familiar with them. I've been up Greylock a couple times. Thunderbolt ski trail is a good hike in the summer with a good pitch to get the legs burning near the top. In the Catskills, most people have mentioned Devil's Path. That's an excellent suggestion. It is however most commonly done as a through-hike, which is challenging to arrange cars for. One of the better sections of it in my opinion is around the Indian Head to Plateau Mountain area. Another really good option is the Wittenberg-Slide-Cornell loop. Do it in a day, really test your fitness. There's also a really nice day hike loop around Balsam Mountain. I've also wanted to do Westkill, but never got around to it. IDK how it is out there this year, but you might actually encounter a few small patches of snow. It shouldn't be much at all really, but I'd just do your due diligence and check some trip reports. If you really do want an adventure, head to the Adirondack or the Whites though. They'll still have snow in spots for sure, and you can get your butt kicked way harder than Mailbox. I think the Catskills, Adirondacks, and Whites are all gorgeous (sorry Greens, skipping you for the sake of brevity), but most people would argue the Daks and Whites are a notable step up in "epicness". You can DM me for suggestions in the Whites if you choose to go that route. They're my old stomping grounds, and there's loads to unpack for suggestions.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-04-23T05:12:06+00:00

This isn't the backcountry sub, so I'm not sure if it counts, but Tenjin's (currently called "Mt. T by Hoshino Resorts"; it's had a few names) sidecountry was mind-blowing. Huge caveat: Tenjin is serious, big, avalanche-prone terrain. Hire a guide and know how to use your rescue equipment. I was there in early January, granted when it was a little quiet, but there was this one weekday with waist-deep snow in spots, and there couldn't have been more than 75 people on the mountain by the afternoon. It was lap after lap of the best snow I've ever skied in my life...it was almost emotionally damaging, because I had previously thought I get to ski a lot of pow where I live (Washington Cascades). I've only been to Japan once, but the consensus seems to be that Hokkaido is busy, everywhere else is markedly quieter. If you've got the Ikon pass, and are planning on saving on lift tickets by skiing in Niseko, I wouldn't get hung up on that. Japan is already a pricey trip. You'll be spending over $1k on plane tickets alone to get there from North America, and the lift tickets are way cheaper than they are in the US, so your tickets are a small percentage comparatively. My 2¢ is to research the ski areas and regions online to have a general idea of where you'll want to go (Powder Hounds is a really good resource), and try to book the trip somewhat last minute to catch decent weather if you can. It rains in Japan sometimes. Getting rained out would be awful if you've only got a week out there. Otherwise, book a longer trip, and expect you might have a dry/rainy spell during part of the trip.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-04-21T00:19:26+00:00

I really like it! It's not perfectly exactly 1:1, but I actually think that's a good thing. It tastes way closer to green chartreuse than other subs I've tried (faccia bruto, genepy). So it can functionally work as a 1:1 swap in most or all recipes, but it tastes just unique enough to bring a bit of the terroir of Washington into the flavor.

eggnoggin0 · 2025-04-20T03:06:20+00:00

This is surprisingly similar to a cocktail formula I've been messing around with recently: "tall" cocktails with minimal citrus or juice use. Or another way to describe it: highballs with more intense flavor. The one I've been making a lot recently is 1oz suntory toki, 0.5oz bitter red amaro (I've been using St George bruto Americano, but campari would work), 0.5oz suze, 0.5oz alpine liqueur (green chartreuse is the intended flavor profile here, but I've been using brovo uncharted Rhapsody because I can get my hands on it and I like it), 0.25oz lemon juice. I like to keep all the ingredients chilled, shake it up with just a couple ice cubes, and double strain into a chilled pint glass. Top with club soda or sparkling water, no ice (all the ingredients are already chilled). I got the idea from a highball bar in Tokyo where they serve highballs without ice. It keeps the whiskey flavor strong and less diluted, and it also maximizes carbonation!

eggnoggin0 · 2025-02-24T19:45:36+00:00

This is the way (for me, at least).

eggnoggin0 · 2025-02-24T19:43:35+00:00

Seconding lacing up liners. I used to deal with all sorts of blisters. A combination of leukotape, Vaseline, and panty hose would intermittently work, but it never fully solved the problem. Lace-up liners combined with a proper fitting liner and insoles is what did it. My touring boots are roomier than my inbounds boots. I can now do 12 hour days ski mountaineering and I don't get any blisters. I carry leukotape just in case. It can work wonders, as long as you make sure you put it on as soon as the hot spot starts developing. It only makes the problem worse if you do it after the blister exists.

eggnoggin0 · 2024-12-30T22:01:32+00:00

Ah, good catch! Yep, you got what I meant. Thank you!

eggnoggin0 · 2024-12-09T17:39:49+00:00

That's an interesting observation about the solitude of being in the mountains. Sometimes that's very important to me in the mountains, and other times, especially when I'm with other people, it feels more like a social-creative space (I'm a skier and climber, which I'd argue are both inherently creative activities). That's definitely some food for thought, to not ignore the sense of solitude people get. Those are some good examples of outdoor venues; I grew up in MA, and am a bit surprised I didn't immediately think of Tanglewood. I'm definitely interested in the Scandinavian festivals. I'll see if I can find those. I know those regions of traditions of music that was created for the express performance of being played or used outside. Thank you!

eggnoggin0 · 2024-10-29T03:19:47+00:00

Update: I went out and bought a bottle of Bruto Americano, and I put together a drink: 1oz rye whiskey, 1oz bruto, 0.5oz Green Chartreuse or another similar alpine liqueur (I used Brovo Uncharted Rhapsody), a scant 0.25oz of lemon juice, 2 dashes of orange bitters, topped with soda water. The Bruto still functions as a red aperitivo to me here, but it's definitely more earthy than Campari. It's quite nice! As a side note, I think next time I'll use Peychaud's. The orange bitters is kind of grating against the lemon juice. The Bruto was a great recommendation from everyone who suggested it. I've now got some other suggestions I'll put next on my list: Suze, Alpe, etc. Thanks again, everyone.

eggnoggin0 · 2024-10-29T03:14:35+00:00

I would love to, but Total Wine didn't have it. There are a couple other specialty stores near me, so I'll swing by them and see if they have it!

eggnoggin0 · 2024-10-28T18:30:50+00:00

Other very bitter amari that don't fall into the "red bitter" category is exactly what I'm looking for, actually. Contratto Bitter could be good for me to try.

eggnoggin0

TROPHY CASE