Keechelus Ridge from Price Creek Sno-park

I parked at the west Price Creek Sno-park (the land of snowmobiles) and headed up a trail that connects to Road 4832. I followed 4832 west over Noble Creek and Price Creek to Road 124, and headed up 124. Road 124 was "groomed" by snowmobiles, but I didn't see any snowmobiles on 124 on the way up or down.

Since I was solo, I stuck to the road, many snowshoers headed cross-country NNE up the slope. At the big, four-way intersection at 4,280'+, I took the left fork (east). At the next three-way intersection at 4,440'+, I took the sharp left (NW). Soon I could see the radio tower on my right.

On the way up I ran into Northwest Hikers regulars Trail Pair, Sadie's Driver, and JimK. And then I ran into them again. And again.

I counted 14 snowmobiles sitting under the radio tower. That didn't include the snowmobiles that were zooming around.

From the radio tower I continued SE up Keechelus Ridge to its summit. I was surprised no other tracks led up there, but it went easily and was a nice ski down.

There were loads of tree-free, untracked, moderate slopes around the radio tower. The ski down the road was great, the snowmobile tracks kept friction down on the gradual parts, and when it was steeper and narrow I widened my turns to include the powder on the side of the road to burn off some speed. I'll come back to this one. I had a blast!

On my way down, I encountered many, many snowshoers, some were still heading up from the parking lot when I pulled out at 1:20 PM.

Date:

2006/12/30

Elevation gain:

2,860 feet

Trip type:

ski

USGS quad:

Stampede Pass

In:

Yakima Valley

Car-to-car: