Charles near the top of
Moonlight Bowl | 
Time panorama: David telemark skiing in
Moonlight Bowl, Stevens Pass backcountry |
David skiing
Moonlight Bowl powder | 
David | 
David snowboarding powder
in Moonlight Bowl |
Steven Pass backcountry snowboarding sequence: Eric in Moonlight Bowl, 11 photos |
Looking up Moonlight Bowl | 
David telemark skiing
Stevens Pass powder | 
David |
Steven Pass snowboarding sequence: Eric in Moonlight Bowl, 7 photos |
Skinning back up
Moonlight Bowl | 
David telemark skiing
shady powder snow | 
David skiing
Stevens Pass powder |
Heather Ridge snowboarding sequence: David in shady north-facing powder and trees, 6 photos |
David engulfed by
his powder plume | 
Looking north to
Lichtenberg Mountain | 
Skinning for a third run |
Black and white snowboarding sequence: Eric on third run, 6 photos |
boarder-David in
black and white | 
skier-David in
black and white | 
David getting air on third run |
Skinning up through forest
for another run | 
David skiing moistened
powder on fourth run | 
David skiing south slope to car |
Photos by Eric Houtkooper and Charles Eldridge
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Backcountry skiing and snowboarding trip report:
March 21, 2007, Stevens Pass snowboarding and skiing, backcountry powder snow, Heather Ridge (Skyline Ridge), Washington
The telemetry suggested that Stevens Pass might have some good powder, so David and I drove up to meet David and Eric (two Davids, one on skis, one on splitboard). It was calm and fairly cold at the pass. There had been clouds in the east on the drive up but the sun rose above these as we skinned up the south-facing slopes toward the radio tower, so we hurried out and did an east-facing run in "Moonlight Bowl" before it was too late for powder.
We made it in time. The snow was very nice, about 12 inches of cohesionless powder that had fallen the previous day over a re-freezing but not yet solid granular layer, with a good bond between the two. The open ridglet that develops down the east-facing slopes showed some wind effects, but the rest of the slope seemed unaffected. We turned around in the trees where the surface snow was already starting to get a little moist, and skinning back up saw that a point release near the ridgetop had already set off a small slide in the new snow. We decided to head for more shady slopes to the west, and ended up doing three runs on various NW to NE aspects in the beautiful gladed forest.
For the first north-side run we skied and boarded through a nice forest of big trees, and the snow was loose andÊpowdery, with big plumes trailing everyone, but especially the snowboarders. By early afternoon the sun had significantly moistened the surface snow where it could reach it: east to southeast slopes for us. The snowboarders got the whole layer of new snow to slide on a short steep approx. east facing section. By the time of our final north-side run, the surface snow had become a bit moist even on shady treed slopes, but there was still nice skiing. It had been clouding up and started to lightly snow on our last climb out, and we weren't really looking forward to the south-facing run back to the car, but this had not started refreezing and was fine (if not great).
Charles |
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