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Dorothy Egg - Goat Rocks Ski Trip

Dorothy Egg sent me a VHS tape of her 8mm movie of skiing from White Pass to the Goat Rocks with Chuck and Marion Hessey and Tom Lyon in 1953. The film is silent and in color and runs about 6-1/2 minutes. When I visited Dorothy with Marion Hessey on 29 July 2002, she showed me a version of the tape that had some narration with it.

The film opens with Marion and Tom at the White Pass highway, climbing a snowbank carrying wood skis and army surplus packs. They pause at the White Pass warming hut, then set out through the trees on skis using canvas climbers. Dorothy said she used sealskins on this trip. One of the skiers has binding trouble and Chuck produces some tools to fix the problem with little delay. They climb to the top of Hogback Mountain with glimpses of Mt Rainier, then cross an open basin, probably above Miriam Lake. Their route followed the Crest Trail and there is a shot of one of the trail markers. There are some fine distant views of the Goat Rocks.

Later they tour without packs into upper McCall Basin. Marion's bindings offer little or no heel lift, so she tours mainly by shuffling her feet. The party climbs to the saddle just north of Old Snowy Mountain (about 6900 feet). Tom and Marion ski back down. Marion descends with crisp stem christies and near-parallel turns. Back in camp they start a fire, collect water, and drink some cocoa next to their two army surplus tents. They collect boughs for insulation under the tents, since they have no air mattresses. Later they tour back to Hogback Mountain and spend some time skiing near the summit among heavily rimed trees and enjoying views of the Goat Rocks in the distance.

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