Skirafting, here??
This might seems like a strange topic for September, but ski season is just a few months away and my digital photo frame has been showing me ski pictures all summer long (maybe to encourage me that cooler days lie ahead).
Last Febuary the American Packrafting Association (APA) speaker series hosted a guest speaker featuring Jeff Creamer to talk about trips with Skis and Packrafts. I think the webinar title was Ski Raftneering or to borrow from the nomenclature from bikerafting you could also probably call it skirafting. I had actually been thinking about the possibilities of combining these two activities even before I tuned into the webinar, but it was interesting to hear the good points that Jeff presented and several things that I didn’t think about when it comes to gear. The one thing that I observed from the presentation was that the trips he presented were big multi-day excursions and didn’t really seem that accessible for the average Joe/Jane (I also realize that was not the point of the presentation). This got me thinking, is there an easier 1-day skirafting objective here in the PNW? I think I’ve possibly found one, but I’m sure there are more.
Around the same time last winter (February) we received some low-elevation snow and I invited a friend to go ski touring in an area not very well known for skiing. I probably shouldn’t share my secret stash with all 17 readers of this blog, but hey, what the heck. The area is the Umtanum ridge south of Ellensburg, WA and accessed from the Yakima River canyon. This is an area that I have paddled (bikerafted) several times in the summer season, but this was my first visit with ski gear in the winter. It is shrub steppe climate so there are no trees except by the river and Umtanum creek. We would have liked to have a little more snow coverage to ski from the car, but once we climbed a few hundred feet elevation out of the canyon we were able to transition to skinning up the slopes. It was unique terrain to be skiing among sage and a wide treeless ridge. It was a fun day and I’m certainly planning to go back when the snow conditions align.
I’m not sure I’m up for the challenge of skirafting this route, but here is how I would potentially plan a trip for the area. Refer to Yakima Canyon route page and specifically, the Hike-a-bike Adventure route. For skirafting, my potential planning would be to park at Mile Post 8 boat launch or possibly Big Pines and then inflate and load the rafts to do a short ferry across the river. Then deflate the rafts and hike/skin up the skyline trail to gain the Umtanum ridge summit. Once at the summit transition to ski mode and rip down into the Umtanum creek drainage roughly following the Skyline trail (we actually skied the spur ridge East of the trail off the summit). Further down into the Umtanum creek canyon, pick-up the trail and cross under the railroad tracks to meet the river at the foot suspension bridge. From here you can inflate the rafts and load everything and paddle back down river to complete the ski-packraft loop. This is probably short enough to accomplish in a single day, but there are fewer daylight hours to utilize in winter. Another option here would be to park at the Umtanum creek trailhead and complete the paddle first and then finish the last half with the hike/ski. That would also eliminate the short transition to ferry gear across the river so would probably be better for efficiency.
I hope I didn’t come across as too critical of Jeff’s webinar earlier in this post. I really enjoyed that talk and the information that he provided. The trips that were presented were really amazing adventures. Just like combining bikes and packrafts to visit cool terrain, I think ski and packraft trips are such a great way to travel through nature. I’m guessing that the white stuff is not flying in your neck of the woods just yet (at least not in the northern hemisphere), but I’m looking forward to fall and winter and the changing seasons. Get outside and enjoy whatever mode of travel you choose!
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