July 2, 2008; Alpental
7/15/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
1744
1
What a difference a week of hot weather makes! Made a short after work trip up to Lower International:
Sessel is now bare. A bit of schwacking and a stream crossing led to continuous snow at the base of Lower International; skinned up to just below the cliffs on skier's right of Lower I. Cancelled plans to scope out upper International owing to a rapidly building thunderstorm overhead (in addition to the diminished motivation from heavily suncupped and hard snow compared to being spoiled with last week's great corn). Enjoyed a short, chattery ski down the suncups, then re-hoisted the skis for the schwack and hike back down. Snow actually softened nicely for the last 4 turns ::).
Less than 50% on the Joy-0-Meter (550 vert. ft skied / 1,200 vf hiked-skinned = ~46%): July is here!!!!
On a side note, Shot 6 still seemed to be holding good snow cover, but probably not for much longer.
Sessel is now bare. A bit of schwacking and a stream crossing led to continuous snow at the base of Lower International; skinned up to just below the cliffs on skier's right of Lower I. Cancelled plans to scope out upper International owing to a rapidly building thunderstorm overhead (in addition to the diminished motivation from heavily suncupped and hard snow compared to being spoiled with last week's great corn). Enjoyed a short, chattery ski down the suncups, then re-hoisted the skis for the schwack and hike back down. Snow actually softened nicely for the last 4 turns ::).
Less than 50% on the Joy-0-Meter (550 vert. ft skied / 1,200 vf hiked-skinned = ~46%): July is here!!!!
On a side note, Shot 6 still seemed to be holding good snow cover, but probably not for much longer.
Wow Chris, a definite retreat of the snow since last week when Brett & I were on Shot 6 (also June 24, though without crossing paths with you - despite keeping an eye out).
One note of advice for those seeing a positive Shot 6 snow report and planning to head that way: hike it from below (on the cat track) straight up to the cliffs, don't bother dropping in from above/side (as you would during the lift served season). The downclimb entrance to the slope from the woods is a snowless rock bench with brush. On a plus note, the woods approach provides for good ski cramponning practice...
-Dave R
One note of advice for those seeing a positive Shot 6 snow report and planning to head that way: hike it from below (on the cat track) straight up to the cliffs, don't bother dropping in from above/side (as you would during the lift served season). The downclimb entrance to the slope from the woods is a snowless rock bench with brush. On a plus note, the woods approach provides for good ski cramponning practice...
-Dave R
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