Mt McCausland Backcountry Skiing

Mt McCausland (5,747ft) Backcountry Skiing

Colie skiing down near the summit

Eric, Tyler, Colie, Kayla, Birkan, Kurt

Jan 11, 2020, ~10 miles, 2,600ft

We left the Smith Brook pullout Saturday morning 8:30am on skis and splitboards. Luckily it is permitted to park in this pullout even when plowing is going on, though cars might get buried in snow.

We followed a skin track up the Smith Brook road until it diverged up to Lichtenwasser Lake. Luckily by then a trio on modified dirt bikes with snow treads passed by, breaking more trail for us. At the hairpin turn at 4,000ft we left the road and then had to break trail on our own. We generally followed Smith Brook, taking turns breaking trail as it snowed continuously. The powder was so deep we were sinking in knee deep even with skis on.

The team breaking trail

By 1pm we made it to near the McCausland-Lichtenburg col and turned up the SE ridge of McCausland. At 5,400ft we turned right to avoid a steep slope, and ascended through the trees up the east face of McCausland. Progress was very slow. Some of the group started transitioning to ski mode shortly below the summit, and Tyler and I continued up to the summit by 2:15pm.

It was very windy, snowing hard, with no view and low visibility. We soon transitioned to ski mode and started the amazing turns down the very deep powder. It was deep enough we often had to follow our skin track up on the less steep sections. Halfway down we encountered tracks from other skiers who had followed our skin track up and turned back early.

We soon reached the road, then were able to mostly glide back to the car without putting the skins on. We got back just before sunset, then spent the next 30 minutes digging out the cars before driving back home.