Racehorse Pass ski trip

By Dominic Battistella

This trip took place on December 8, 2011. Posted with additional information by Dave Tucker on December 11.

In cold clear inversion conditions, Dominic Battistella and Tim O’Donnell skied up the road on the south valley wall of Racehorse Creek to informally named ‘Racehorse Pass’. This pass is at 4300’ on the east-west ridge separating Racehorse Creek from Clearwater Creek. The latter drains south to the Middle Fork Nooksack River. Parked the 2WD car at 2400’, just past the bridge over Racehorse Creek. The approach road up Racehorse was skiable in early November (report here), but is temporarily melted out until our next snow storm.

Skiing begins just south of the upper bridge. Google Earth. Click to enlarge images.

Directions: Drive the North Fork Road off Mosquito Lake Road, taking all right forks after the lower Racehorse Creek Bridge. The upper Racehorse bridge is about 11 miles from Mosquito Lake Road. USGS topo maps: road approach, USGS Kendall 7.5′; ski: Canyon Lake 7.5′.

Stats:    9:30 AM  Parked 2WD:  2400′

Started skiing 2800′ , 4″ snow

Good skiing begins at 3250′  (where 4X4 tracks ended),  7″

2:30 PM  High Point: 4400′ , 25+”,  5 miles from upper Racehorse bridge

4:40pm  Back to car, round trip 10 miles.

Dominic reports:

The headwaters of Racehorse Creek, Mount Baker, and the Sisters from the lower Racehorse road. We turned around at that low pass in the ridge toward the right of the photo.. D. Battistella photo.

Another great ski, of course.  The low elevation snow on the road was tracked out by a 4X4 and the remnants of a couple of previous splitboarders, a snowshoer, and a couple of xc skiers. Once we got beyond the 4X4’s adventure the skiing was excellent.  It wasn’t long before we had fresh tracks as the splitboarders took the High Road to Toboggan Pass where we took a left onto Low Road. The xc tracks were from a few storms ago and barely perceptible (DT says- hmmm, wonder who that was? Should figure that out and invite them to become contributors!)  They went up Low Road a short ways, not near as far up as Tim and I made it. The first couple of miles of Low Road were flat and gently graded so we had a stretch of premier kick-and-glide classic skiing.  Breaking trail was easy;  no storms in awhile so the snow was consolidated, kinda wet and topped with hoar frost.

HI-Lo junction at 2400'. Tracks continue up the High road. D. Battistella photo.

There are at least two serious avalanche areas that cross this section of road that will come into play later in the season.  Not enough snow yet to worry about it.  Low Road eventually starts climbing pretty steeply and the road has been dug out about every 50 yards for erosion control which made for countless challenging gully crossings.

Cross country skiing at Racehorse Pass, 4300'. Nectar! D. Battistella photo.

We had originally sought to access the Canyon Lake Community Forest via this route but that turned out to be more than we could chew this early in the season.  We topped out at Racehorse Pass from where we could look North down the entire Racehorse Creek canyon to the Mts. whose names go unknown in Canada (a reference to this Slide Mountain report).  To the south we looked down Clearwater Creek to Mount Baker and the Twin Sisters.

The High road traverses beneath a 4740' peak heading toward Toboggan Ridge. Photo by D. Battistella.

The sun set as we descended while the moon rose large right off the summit of Slide Mt., where I had stood just four nights earlier with Kyle and Simon (reported in the preceding link).  The snow was of medium speed and the telemarking was excellent.  Mostly really long gradual thigh burning carves.  There was a very brief south facing area that had grabby breakable crust.