It is late in December but Roy and I are looking around for one of Washington's 100 Highest Peaks (Bulger List) that we can do a ski ascent on. Not a likely prospect with such unpredictable weather patterns in the Cascades. So our attention turns east, far to the east... the Pasayten. We have done some trips into the Pasayten via Loomis and Long Swamp so how about Windy Peak? Maybe we can drag our snowmobiles up the Basin Creek Road behind Roy's 4-wheel drive Ford pickup far enough to make the approach.

So on December 21st we find we are able to drive all the way to the Basin Creek road and then up this road a ways before the snow gets too deep. We manage to get the truck and trailer turned around, pointed downhill again, get our machines off the trailer, load them up and take off. We come to the end of the road in about 4 miles and park our snowmobiles. I park my Yamaha Phazer on an incline hoping that this will allow a rolling start if the usual hand cranking doesn't work. I also take time to clean as much of the snow out from under the machine as I can so it won't freeze and prevent the machine from running because of frozen tracks (this has happened in the past).

We finally hoist our packs and start skiing up the trail. As we look back down on our parking area a bull moose wanders through. He is so big with such huge antlers that a shiver goes down my spine. Hope he doesn't decide to follow us. We manage a couple of miles on our skiis before daylight starts to fade. Time to set up camp but we are on a steep, heavily timbered mountain side. So we are forced to stamp out a flat area on the trail large enough for Roy's tent and my bivy bag. It is very cold as we gather some wood and start a fire. We melt snow for making our dinner and hot drinks then heat up more water for water bottles to keep our feet warm with the temperature expected to reach down into the zero range.

The next morning, after a cold, miserable night, we are up early and prepare to make the ski ascent of Windy Peak. It is socked in with visibility of only a couple of hundred feet and we hope it will clear up as the day goes on. We each have a liter of water which is in danger of freezing solid. We skin along about a mile to an area that is more open as we drop slightly

through a saddle then start up again. The snow has gotten deep enough that we lose the trail but we continue to climb. After two or three more hours of effort with considerable energy being expended when we fall through the crust in spots where there is sizeable bush under the snow. These traps are sometimes discernable by a hump in the snow but not always. Roy, being much lighter than me, is having a much better time of it.

By early afternoon we have reached the summit area and it is still socked in with visibility now only 50 feet. Are we on top? We ski on further and it starts to drop off so we mount the highest block and take a murky picture. Time to head back to camp. We remove the skins and start the ski back down. Roy is going great trying to follow the general route we used coming up. I follow in his tracks but soon run into trouble. That 'lightweight' is skiing right over bushes that then ambush me and I keep falling into their booby traps. My language becomes worse as I hit booby trap after booby trap and have to struggle each time to extricate myself and get back up on my skiis. Roy is getting a big kick out of it.

Finally we get down to the old trail section we recognize and the going is much better. We are still two or three hours from camp and out of water. Our thirst is so intense that we stop by a small clump of trees and try to think of a way to melt some water but all we have is our plastic bottles. I used to carry a small metal cup for such occasions but don't have it with me. But in rummaging around scraping off the snow under one of the trees for a spot to put a fire we discover a rusty can. It still has about half the original can intact so we start a small fire and melt enough snow to get a few sips of water. Not nearly enough but it gets us up and going again for camp. It has been a long day and is starting to get dark.

I realize that this is December 22nd, likely the shortest day of the year, and also my 65th birthday. Don't feel much like celebrating but do have some satisfaction from getting Windy Peak, on skiis, on a very cold and short December day. This gets us both one peak closer to completing the Bulger List. Yes, we are able to get our snowmobiles cranked up and are able to end our adventure on a good note.

Some pictures later