A winter weekend in the NORTHwest

More on the American Southwest later...  I just spent a weekend in the American NORTHwest, so that's what I'd like to share with you today.  Just this past weekend, Nadia, myself, and friends Dennis and Ashley spent a few days at a backcountry ski resort in Washington state called Scottish Lakes High Camp.  It's a high mountain camp in the Cascade Mountains, east of the crest, not too far from the town of Leavenworth.  To get there, you can either ski in (a long slog) or fork out the extra dough and shuttle in on snowmobiles (along with your gear, which gets hauled in on snowmobiles anyway).  The camp itself is nestled in a small wooded notch below McCue Ridge and consists of a main lodge, hot tub and sauna, and several small cabins with rustic amenties.

There were many highlights over High Camp weekend.  I tried out telemark skiis for the first time (Dennis lent me the gear) and I took to them quite naturally.  The ridiculous amount of snow was also a highlight, transforming the whole landscape into a winter wonderland.  Hanging out in camp was also lots of fun... playing Balderdash and drinking good Northwest beer.  The cabins themselves are quite endearing and grow on you, even when you are too hot trying to sleep beside the woodstove at 2am, and cold two hours later once your fire has burnt out; a nightly ritual was waking at 4am to rebuild the fire in my underwear.  Uhhh... not the fire in my underwear.  The fire, while in my underwear. 

Another highlight was the fierce weather.  Overcast and snowing on the Friday and Saturday, along with gale force wind gusts to go along with our Gale Force India Pale Ales waiting for us back at cabin.  Then clearing out and dead calm on the Sunday, with some good views of the mountains south of McCue Ridge.  Ahh, yes, and can't forget about the tobogganing... probably the highlight for Nadia!