Distance: 5.1 mi.
Elevation Gain: 1300 ft.
Laura, Craig and I were spending the weekend on the Olympic Peninsula and wanted to get a backcountry ski in. We knew that Mount Townsend is a local ski destination, but we didn’t have great beta on how to make it happen. We weren’t sure if the Honda Fit could make it up the road but decided to make a go for it. We weren’t exactly hustling in the morning so we reached the upper road at 11 AM. There were a few deeper pockets of snow in some of the shaded turns of the road but we were able to gingerly get our low clearance vehicle across. We eventually reached a near-continuous patch of snow about 2 miles from the trailhead so we looked for a nice area to pull off the side of the road and park. Meanwhile we saw a guy with a truck who had decided to turn around but got the front wheels of his truck stuck in the ditch beside the road. We offered to help and between the four of us and two bikers that came along, we were able to get the truck out of the ditch! Sadly, that was a highlight of our ski trip.
We skinned up the road for two miles and then reached the upper trailhead. (The privy was open, by the way.) We continued up the trail where we quickly realized that there was less snow than on the road 🙁
We skinned up a few switchbacks until we reached a complete dry patch on the trail. As far as we could see, the trail ahead had crunchy, uneven snow. Although we felt that we could probably continue on and find good snow eventually, the effort to enjoyment ratio was not quite adding up for us. Not to mention we had raw oysters and board games awaiting us at our Airbnb in Brinnon, so we decided to cut our losses and turn around. Laura carried her skis on her backpack and walked down but Craig and I skied down the trail with our skins on. We had to skin uphill a ways from the trailhead but eventually we were able to remove our skins and ski back down the road. The road skiing was kinda fun and we got back to the car at about 1:30. Then, oysters!
(Download the free Gaia GPS app on your phone to view tracks and then get a Gaia GPS membership if you want offline access. Discount below!)
Recommended brew: Fremont Space Danger!
Gear Used:
- Avalanche beacon/shovel/probe
- Backcountry boots/skis/skins
- Day pack
- GPS
- Helmet
- Trekking poles
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