Becker Peak and Talking Mountain

Our tour was from the Echo Lake Sno-park and west along the ridge to Becker Peak and then Talking Mountain.  The sun was warming the snow which made for sticky skinning.  But the existing tracks were solid and maintaining a solid state.  The fire from last year hit the ridge and burned many of the trees (sad to see).  Those trees are now shedding large debris skirts of branches and pine cones which makes skinning a little more round about.  In some case, we just had to skin litely through.

As we progressed past Becker Peak and along the south aspect of the ridge, the snow was softened and wet.  Skinning required a light stomp to get purchase and not to slide.  Luckily there was enough snow covering the rocks and it was easier to traverse across the slope.

On the peak of Talking Mountain, a 5-15mph wind would gust.  The surface was hard pack wind scrapped snow.  Several trees in the area had large collections of ice chunks around their wells.

We descended just down and east of the peak and then dropped onto the NE ridge.  Snow was dust on crust for most of the way down to lake level.  Snow depth on crust ranged around 3"-6".

From Echo Lake, we skinned back up towards Becker Peak, but only to midway up to the NW corner of the bowl NE of the peak.  The snow skinning up was light dust on crust and required stomping to break through and form a good track.  The descent back down the bowl and to the lake was nice dust on crust with enough snow to make it fun.

Pictures:

1. Burned trees and debris
2. Looking west at the ridge between Becker and Talking Mountain
3. Closer view of ridge showing cornice(s) and possible cornice avalanche mid-slope right.
4. More burned trees and snow cover on west espect just before Talking Mountain peak
5. Looking west to Ralston Peak from Talking Mountain