North Lookout, PLPP
Trip date: Sunday Nov 14, 2021
Submitted by Normand
Particpants:
Me
Discussion:
Arrived at the Backdoor parking lot at 11 am with already nine cars parked in. I figure there would be a good skier track laid out with the few cm of fresh snow. But no one seems to have skied south on Pocaterra. The waxing was a problem, with a mixture wet snow falling. I was intending to do the Lookout Trail via Elk Pass, but the slow challenging conditions and more rain than expected at higher elevation, convinced me to shorten the route. The climb up North Lookout had more snow than 2 weeks ago. Was caught up by the only skier I saw, Ryan with his wider skis. The dry fresh snow only picked up about 50 m below the fire tower (~2100 m ASL), with pretty strong winds and of course no visibility. The run back down was nice, hitting no rocks, picking more wet snow falling by the time I arrived at the Whiskey Jack junction. Only 9 km return, but more demanding in these conditions than the 24 km return trip to Moraine Lake (Lake) on Thursday. The drive back to at least the Fortress Junction on Highway 40 was a perfect soupy mess of slush, water and ice, with heavy rain.