Raymond Cataract Beta? Anyone?

[First Chair]

Thinking of putting RC on my radar. I know two things about it; it's normally a waterfall, and two years ago while skiing down the sherby after a sick day in the bowl, I saw two guys walking out of the woods. They looked like they had just seen a ghost. I stopped to talk to them and they said they just skied down Cataract. They said it was the scariest thing they have ever done in their life. They were thankful for being alive. They appeared more like two guys who were emerging from a bad acid trip...barely audible and not making much sense.

anyone know anything about skiing this? access routes, etc.

[RR]

The snow rangers reported that there was a big slide in there this season. I doubt that it has filled in the waterfall just above the bridge on the fire road. Even so that might be the way to access it and inspect the line on the way up.

I'm just guessing, but that looks like crampons and axes territory from the fire road to the lower snowfield.

[Affix Snow]

You can kind of see the bottom of it here....where the waterfall should be....bottom right of the photo in the foreground....not great but it gives you some perspective....


Id like to ski it to say I skied it more or less. Id agree with RR and would at least have a rope and technical tools. Especially if going UP.

[Rider.Steve]

The Raymond fan/snowfield is a very prominent and attractive sliding op - it's the Falls that give me pause. I would consider hiking up Lion's Head, yo-yoing the fan, and hiking up and out as a very good (and pretty safe) day.

[RR]

nice find!

That pic makes the thing look very doable! The upper bit that is partially hidden by the ridge is mostly a wide path through steepish krumholtz. The prominent waterfall seems well covered.

What it looks like down by the fire road is anybody's guess.

[yuckster]

When Lisa and jumpturn and I went up to Huntington last month, we ran into a guy in the parking lot who had lost a ski the previous day in Raymond and was bushwhacking back up to retrieve it...

[RR]

Originally Posted by yuckster

When Lisa and jumpturn and I went up to Huntington last month, we ran into a guy in the parking lot who had lost a ski the previous day in Raymond and was bushwhacking back up to retrieve it...

Reading your post made me think of the Raymond Path and consider whether that was skiable.

I wonder if it would be a worthwhile ski??

[First Chair]

hmm, ice axe/crampons is fine, but anything involving technical ice/ropes is out of my skill set...the 'yo-yo' idea seems good, but something about continual laps above an un-seen potential waterfall death drop is slightly alarming...i knew this was a pretty gnar descent, i guess i was hoping this years snowpack would be enough to nuetarlize the waterfall section...


...and with this post i just graduated to Lip Master!

[clg898]

Bear in mind also the amount of non-frozen precip we've had. That and the fact that the little headwall has collapsed/opened up a couple of times this season. I'd be a bit sketched about undermined snow.

[RR]

Congratz FC....if you climb it and see that it's too techical for just the pons and an axe, bail climber's left into the woods and see if it doesn't allow good upward progress

[icelanticskier]

raymonds is a great ski with a hefty snowpack. i've skied the upper portion to the top of the falls multiple times when the rest of the rock pile was providing moguled dirty snow during late season. the bush wack in from lions head is truly herculean to say the least. the upper portion provided smooth, low angle turns till the waterfall and it was easy to stop out of harms way. in anything less than an epic winter, skiing the lower portion is almost too much work to call it good skiing. on a good year it's turn to drop to turn to drop and so on.
have fun
gos provided wonderful untracked pow skiing in the sun today btw
rog

[surfsnowywaves]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

raymonds is a great ski with a hefty snowpack. i've skied the upper portion to the top of the falls multiple times when the rest of the rock pile was providing moguled dirty snow during late season. the bush wack in from lions head is truly herculean to say the least. the upper portion provided smooth, low angle turns till the waterfall and it was easy to stop out of harms way. in anything less than an epic winter, skiing the lower portion is almost too much work to call it good skiing. on a good year it's turn to drop to turn to drop and so on.
have fun
gos provided wonderful untracked pow skiing in the sun today btw
rog

How was the snowpack doing over there? We were digging in the ravine today, and our pits showed a prominent weakness in the windslab, both right at the top (within 3 light taps) and then a layer also gave out about 30-40 cm down (at about the 15th tap). We were digging in a sheltered area with about 1 1/2 meters of windslab on top of the rain crust.

[icelanticskier]

the snow pack was stable in some places and suspect in others. we pretty much stuck to areas that received a bit less loading and no weird sounds were heard or settling witnessed. there was no need to dig a pit as the same supportable crust was everywhere, just a bunch of pole handle probing we stayed in mid-depth stuff that was well settled and creamy carvy.
rog

[First Chair]

Originally Posted by icelanticskier

gos provided wonderful untracked pow skiing in the sun today btw
rog

i was just looking at your photos from over there - very nice....hmm, decisions, decisions....left to the GOS, right to the RC, or up the middle to the spot i love most?!?!

[icelanticskier]

have fun,
i'll be back up there somewhere monday and tuesday. weather outlook seems nice and with a little bit more new snow, many spots should be skiing very well. gonna keep an eye on wind/precip.
rog