Browse Reports By Tag: pokosha RSS2015-01-14T14:17:00+0000Just a quick report to save everyone a trip up. I was up the Ashlu Main on Sunday, January 11th to see what's up with the snowpack. The road was plowed to the power plant at the bottom of the mainline (about Mile 22). Skinned up from there on an inadequate base for skiing down. Quads had made it to the top of the hill above the canyon just beyond Cassetta Creek. After that it was just snowmobile tracks all the way to the head pond at Mile 26. Took just over an hour from the bottom. No trail breaking to that point. The snow was deep enough for the ski down from where the quads stopped. They'd really churned the snow up. Broke trail to A620 Pokosha Creek road about 2 km beyond the head pond. Turned up the roadbed to the end, another 3 km. Snow depth actually decreased once off the mainline. It might have something to do with cold air drainage or perhaps the roadbed is not cleared as wide so the trees trap warmth better. I had to walk with the skis for at least 500 meters just beyond the 4x4 parking and then there was lots of running water to cross all the way to the end. Once on the trail proper, in the trees the snow pretty much disappeared. It took me about 3.5 hours from the bottom to reach the trail. Snowpack is desperately thin all the way to the alpine. Called it a day. 

]]>2015-01-14T14:17:00+0000 April 24, 2013  Participants: Max Aleksandrov, Paul Kubik  Map of route: http://www.mappingsupport.com/p/gmap4.php  The headwaters of Coin Creek with Jimmy Jimmy in the distance. (Photo by Peter Margetak from the summit of Pokosha Peak) Merit points were earned for: An officially named summit was attained by the entire team. A good dog was found enroute and accompanied the team to the summit. We were able to drive very close to Pokosha Creek road on a good 2WD road that was recently cleared and graded. Recent trail work by the club made for a smooth ascent. Snow conditions were by and large excellent. Sunny weather prevailed in the afternoon for the descent but it was sufficiently cold to preserve the snow conditions for skiing. A brief snow storm before noon deposited fresh powder on the route down to 800 metres. Avalanche conditions were favorable for backcountry travel.  One demerit point was awarded because through no fault of the trail maintainers a large number of trees came down in the winter.  This was probably my eighth ascent of Jimmy Jimmy, always on skis. For Max, a recent arrival from Kyrgzstan, it was his first ascent. January 30, 2011, we had actually been able to drive to pretty much the same spot after the snowmobile track up Ashlu Creek was soaked by a Pineapple Express rain event and subsequently froze hard. So the road access is very good at times due to the presence of the IPP project on the Ashlu.  We parked just beyond the intake for the IPP project. It put us within two km of the Pokosha Creek turnoff. Unfortunately, the unique circumstances of the previous December contributed to an impressive amount of downed trees across the road. These circumstances I attribute to heavy snow throughout December with little wind. It allowed an enormous snow load to accummulate on trees. All around the south coast and the North Cascades there was heavy damage to trees in the band between 600 and 900 metres elevation. While annoying, it ... Read more

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