Rock and Snow

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We spent one last weekend with our mate, Thomas doing a big road trip in and around Washington. The first day was to be spent at Vantage, for some rock climbing/ hiking , and then head off to Stevens Pass for a bit of skiing the following day on the way back.
Our trip to Vantage took much longer than expected. A 5 hour drive turned out to be like 7 hours, and we ended up getting to the rock early morning, just before sunrise. We set up camp next to the rock called the Feathers. It is a dry and arid looking place, quite different from where we'd come from. The next morning the bright sun and peoples voices up woke us up, and we crawled out of our tents feeling knackered. The climbers were already at it , and a few were drifting off to another climbing area called sunshine rocks. After breakfast we took the climbing gear and noisily made our way to the other side. The hike was quite pleasant and interesting enough. Once at the other end, we saw masses of climbers, Thomas noting that it was far busier than normal so we decided to go for another hike to the sand dunes over the valley. This is rattlesnake country so we had to watch where we put our feet. The weather continuosly changed throughout , the rain came and went, being pushed in by the clouds and back out again. The sun shone and then hid behind the clouds and a cold wind kept occassionally kept passing through. After our walk, back at the tent, we decided to get started with the long drive to Stevens Pass, and booked a hostel for the night close to the mountain.
The snow at Stevens Pass is a bit like mount baker- dry and powdery. The mountain is small but it gets far busier because its so close to Seattle. There are a few expert trails, so we headed straight for them. The lines at the intermediate chair lift were long and since we'd started late that morning we didnt want to waste more time. The snow was quite good that day, nothing like Baker, but still powder like conditions prevailed. We headed up to the one diamond trails and heading down them went off piste into the trees and explored a bit of the mountain that way. The final run we did that morning was a double diamond which was steep and powdery. It took me ages but made it without losing my skis. We ended the short ski day at that and jumped back in the car to head back to Vancouver. A long drive back, with some essential shopping stops, and we were back in Van eating dinner and drinking cheap US bought wine. Nice weekend. Thanks Thomas!

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