Report by Bianca Klar

On Saturday, March 5th, the three of us Chuck D, Bob Y, and myself (Bianca K) revisited one of our old favorite tours to Craig’s lake. It’s a B tour, and although not very long (only 7.5 miles), it involves quite a bit of climbing up and down, so it requires some downhill skills and experience. It also involves crossing a creek, which at various snow conditions can be quite challenging.

The weather was lovely, mostly clear skies and a bit breezy, which felt cold when gearing up, but felt just right when climbing.  We had a couple of inches of fresh snow on a solid frozen base.  It was good for climbing.  With different conditions and different snow levels, we are often tempted to try different routs in search for the perfect one:-).  This time we stayed up high on a sort of plateau, but had to navigate a lot of regrowth (hemlock thickets).  Crossing the creek up high was easy, for it was all covered with snow there, but climbing back up was too steep and icy at that spot so we had to descend some to find a gentler slope.  We continued a mostly gentle climb to the lake and had a lovely lunch there.  Coming back on the south facing slopes was a hoot, real good snow for turns.  But the east facing slopes stayed crunchy and rough.  

The first picture shows where we are headed, second shows the creek canyon we had to cross, and the last two are taken at the lake.