February 5 -6, 2000
The winter of 1999-2000 became our winter of laziness. Why drive all the way to the Tatoosh when Snoqualmie pass is just an hour away? An interesting area was visible on the topos along Rampart Ridge. It wasn't in the Burgdorfer guide, so we would be like - exploring. Cool.
We parked at the Gold Creek snowpark were a bunch of snowmobiler's were really rude to us, including threatening to trash my car if I parked to close to their huge snowmobile trailers. These are the same people who can't figure out why they're getting banned from national parks.
It would take most of a day to get over the ridge and reach the rampart lakes on the other side, so we decided to make it an overnighter.
Heading up the logging road.
I experienced a teensy bit of pause wondering how we would get over
the cliffy ridge. We found an easy route through the trees on the
right.
The sun came in and out of the wispy clouds.
Lake Lillian. We crossed the ridge through the narrow notch to
the upper left.
Matt crossing the lake...
... and skinning up the crust towards the notch.
Looking back down from the notch at the steep slope we'd climbed.
You can just barely see our boot steps on the right. Skiing back
down this the next day was a little interesting as the crust was quite
firm. Fortunately the crust was weak enough that you'd probably just
break through if you fell insead of sliding into those trees.
No it's not the fogdog.com pooch - it's Phil wearing a hat he made himself.
Those are actually supposed to be moose antlers.
Home sweet home: camp the next morning. Note the spot of green
tea in the lower right.
Is this what happens if you shoot into the sun on a foggy morning with
condensation on the lense? Or is it an arty Pink-Floyd-esque shot
that shows how amazingly cool we really are? You decide.
No I didn't put guaze over the lense, this is what it really looked
like. The karst topography made me feel like I was inside a Chinese
landscape painting.
Matt in tele-heaven.
A little blue sky.
Back at the notch on the way home.