Exploring The Old Yodelin Ski Resort

With a fresh blanket of snow Sunday night, and a midweek day off of work to tour. Brenan and I decided on an easy tour around Yodelin for the day to get time on our skins, and check out the old decommissioned ski resort (circa mid 1970’s). Usually on weekends this is an overused madhouse for a quick backcountry tour, but apparently midweek after a nice little snow dump and some light wind it can be a desolate and beautiful tour. The main slopes that people ski are below 30 degrees, and with the amount of tree dodging required probably fairly anchored in most conditions. The snow was a good 12 inches of fluff on a firmer base so it was fast and fluffy everywhere! We started with a nice slow gear up, beacon checks, reviewed searching basics, and a quick skim of the map to get oriented to our plan. I’ve been here once several years ago when I first got my split, but it was with a group on snowshoes so I wasn’t going to ride the tree well madness without a partner.

We toured up the road to the little meadow and we looked around for multiple uphill options other than just the road to the right. Today’s mission was really to explore and get a layout of the place so we had a good idea of where and how everything was laid out. We passed a few semi-open swaths, picked one, and worked our way slowly up the hill. I’m pretty glad we went up the route we did, because it was my favorite run downhill on the return trip to the car. During previous research the “main” runs people ski are from the top Between Welldigger’s and an unnamed peak so that’s where we headed toward. Pouring over the satellite imagery, as the base deepens there is actually a lot of options possible. We toured up past one of the old lift towers via a non-traditional route, through the trees and made it to the saddle.

B skiining around near the saddle.

1/9 general tour route. The road up would be quicker.

picking our way up the western edge of the “main” runs.

Looking across the western “main” run.

We were trying to find a semi-visible line from above through the fields of tree wells. Finally we found a very clear line on a 10+ degree slope toward the center of the saddle that trended east gradually steepening and we picked our way down the low angle terrain to an old road bed. After we got to the bottom, we realized that was probably the best up-route for a quick return, but decided to go check out the other side by the other downhill run. From the top it had looked like a cluster of trees and you couldn’t really see where any of it went, so a view from the bottom really helped see the possible “lines” through all of the trees.

We toured down hill on the road bed and started to follow the far western edge of the thicker stands of trees. Which is a relatively steeper uphill than the line we came down. But in an effort to scout the place out, and have great lines the next time we zigged and zagged uphill through the trees checking everything out along the way. We scouted some nice lines for next time as we went. By the time we got to the top we decided to head back toward the car. So we rode the trees back toward the top of the old lift. Cutting back on our up track we were rewarded with an amazing powder run through decently spaced trees. The road rode really fast with some exciting high speed 180 degree logging road turns at full-tilt lean! Overall an awesome day on the slopes exploring the terrain of Yodelin without anyone around. On the return trip we saw one other set of tracks that started around the old lift tower, but other than that it was a peaceful day and a quiet tour at the old Yodelin Ski Resort.