January 4, 2004, Snoqualmie Pass Area
1/4/04
WA Snoqualmie Pass
5065
13
Coincidentally, I had just packed away my snorkel on the 3rd, finally cleaning up after a trip to somewhere decidedly warmer than where we went yesterday. I coulda used that tube!
Silas did his usual marvelous job of pulling a crew together, including on this day Sir Charles, Russ, and me (and a serviceable mountain car). There were more possibly coming along to follow our tracks after a little more sleep, but they opted for other fine slopes instead.
We skied a little east of the pass from ~2700 to ~5700, with a few extra laps in the top 1200 to 1500, depending on the lap. We skied mostly W and WNW aspects up higher, and wrapped around to SSW and S toward the bottom. We were all large smiles at the bottom, with that warm glow one gets from a mixture of endorphins and knowing that it doesn't get much better than this, and it only gets this good now and then).
Wow! Sounds like our findings were far from unique, but in any case these were indeed some of the finest runs I've had in WA (and only a few of my best runs in the Selkirks compare). I rediscovered why it's a good idea to switch from sunglasses to goggles for the run down even if you don't wipe out. In open (steep) meadows, we had bottomless cold powder which trailed in plumes for yards behind each skier. Only once did I get a ski tip buried, and that was near a tree and due to some poor technique. The snow profile was wonderful for floating. More of the same in the mature forest, except that the base was a bit firmer and there were some relatively soft tree bombs to mix things up a little.
The snow stayed great all the way to 2700 on our run back to the car, though you could actually feel a little of the underlying crust on steeper pitches in the woods at 2700. We didn't experience any of the "afternoon glopping" that Phil described in his post, though we were only on S aspects on our way down for the briefest moment, so perhaps aspect made the difference here?
We cut across the top of a few very steep convex rolls and didn't see anything beyond surface sluffing (at least no on in the party reported anything beyond this to me, and that's all I saw). I did notice that the edges of some of our tracks were very "squared off" so it seemed like there was some slabbiness about, but nothing that fractured or slid on us.
Let's hope that this is an indication of the season to come, and that this week's warmer weather (4-5K snow level >:( )will just be a brief "stabilizing event" for our snowpack so we can start counting again from the "early January Crust."
Oh - one more thing. I started to remember a lot of those "cold weather details" I'd forgotten in the 10 years since I moved from New England, such as :
-water bottle insulators aren't a luxury
-liner gloves are nice only if they don't constrict
-lightweight balaclavas are the best clothing value per ounce
-armpits are your cold fingers' friends
be very strategic about when and where to eat lunch
Fortunately I didn't need to repeat the "your belly is the best place to warm your partner's toes" lesson...
Silas did his usual marvelous job of pulling a crew together, including on this day Sir Charles, Russ, and me (and a serviceable mountain car). There were more possibly coming along to follow our tracks after a little more sleep, but they opted for other fine slopes instead.
We skied a little east of the pass from ~2700 to ~5700, with a few extra laps in the top 1200 to 1500, depending on the lap. We skied mostly W and WNW aspects up higher, and wrapped around to SSW and S toward the bottom. We were all large smiles at the bottom, with that warm glow one gets from a mixture of endorphins and knowing that it doesn't get much better than this, and it only gets this good now and then).
Wow! Sounds like our findings were far from unique, but in any case these were indeed some of the finest runs I've had in WA (and only a few of my best runs in the Selkirks compare). I rediscovered why it's a good idea to switch from sunglasses to goggles for the run down even if you don't wipe out. In open (steep) meadows, we had bottomless cold powder which trailed in plumes for yards behind each skier. Only once did I get a ski tip buried, and that was near a tree and due to some poor technique. The snow profile was wonderful for floating. More of the same in the mature forest, except that the base was a bit firmer and there were some relatively soft tree bombs to mix things up a little.
The snow stayed great all the way to 2700 on our run back to the car, though you could actually feel a little of the underlying crust on steeper pitches in the woods at 2700. We didn't experience any of the "afternoon glopping" that Phil described in his post, though we were only on S aspects on our way down for the briefest moment, so perhaps aspect made the difference here?
We cut across the top of a few very steep convex rolls and didn't see anything beyond surface sluffing (at least no on in the party reported anything beyond this to me, and that's all I saw). I did notice that the edges of some of our tracks were very "squared off" so it seemed like there was some slabbiness about, but nothing that fractured or slid on us.
Let's hope that this is an indication of the season to come, and that this week's warmer weather (4-5K snow level >:( )will just be a brief "stabilizing event" for our snowpack so we can start counting again from the "early January Crust."
Oh - one more thing. I started to remember a lot of those "cold weather details" I'd forgotten in the 10 years since I moved from New England, such as :
-water bottle insulators aren't a luxury
-liner gloves are nice only if they don't constrict
-lightweight balaclavas are the best clothing value per ounce
-armpits are your cold fingers' friends
be very strategic about when and where to eat lunch
Fortunately I didn't need to repeat the "your belly is the best place to warm your partner's toes" lesson...
One more cold weather detail:
Don't touch anything metal when the temperature is below 10 degrees F!
How did markharf get frozen snot yesterday, my nose hairs (and nose) froze before any liquid could show up?
Too bad there was only 8.5 hrs of daylight, but then again my body could not take much more, tho the endorphins yesterday made skinning up a lot easier than the average Pac NW tour.
Though I could only imagine how fine the skiing near Stevens and Crystal must have been, the four lanes of I-90 sure make for a shorter and safer ski tour.
Don't touch anything metal when the temperature is below 10 degrees F!
How did markharf get frozen snot yesterday, my nose hairs (and nose) froze before any liquid could show up?
Too bad there was only 8.5 hrs of daylight, but then again my body could not take much more, tho the endorphins yesterday made skinning up a lot easier than the average Pac NW tour.
Though I could only imagine how fine the skiing near Stevens and Crystal must have been, the four lanes of I-90 sure make for a shorter and safer ski tour.
I think we must have been baking in a little oven where we were. Aspect was SW. (original destination was the north slope of Chair, but we couldn't pass up this slope as we passed by - and then we decided with snow like this, it's better to yoyo than to break trail for a few hours). Our lunch break, during which the powder->glop transformation happened, was very warm: I was comfortable with my hat off and only polypro + thin shell. The only time I was cold was zipping back to the car along the packed trail.
At least we had a good 3 hours of snorkel-worthy snow.
At least we had a good 3 hours of snorkel-worthy snow.
Yeah - you must have had an oven effect. The only times I wasn't cold (or heavily clothed) was when skinning up at a fast clip and the quick lunch break in the calm sunny hole in the forest where I still put on a thick layer, a shell, and a warm hat.
It's been a while since I've carefully inspected my weird-feeling fingertips to be sure they weren't getting waxy, and getting into that state took just a few seconds of gear-fiddling with thin gloves on to achieve...
It's been a while since I've carefully inspected my weird-feeling fingertips to be sure they weren't getting waxy, and getting into that state took just a few seconds of gear-fiddling with thin gloves on to achieve...
Jim - Thank you, I have been searching a long time for the expression "squared off" to describe the phenomenon you found at the Pass yesterday. Funny, I feel more and more like an eskimo everyday.
Anyway, as you can see from the photo taken on a S facing exposure at ~ 4,200', all was fine with the face we skied.
The photo is of a friend visiting from Colorado, and now he's convinced the powder is always like this here in Washington. After four days straight of it, hell, I'm beginning to believe it! And even if it's not, you can't knock a place where you have this kind of skiing in your backyard.
Silaswild: In defense of my own ordinarily-impeccable grooming, I insist that the snotcicles pictured in another thread consist primarily of condensed exhalations and melted face shots. I've always been especially prone to the former, being one who pants like an old steam engine on the uphills.
Edited to add: Whoa! Nice photo!
Edited to add: Whoa! Nice photo!
Oh, and Jim I forgot to add that I know 1 photo per thread, so if you want add your own let me know. It sounded like we were skiing a similar area, but I didn't want to trample your expression.
And don't you miss that NE cold?!?
And don't you miss that NE cold?!?
No worries on the photo - it could have been taken near our runs for sure (though Charles might wish you to write another TR and put the photo there ;)).
You know, there are a few things I miss about the NE cold, such as sea smoke, skating on black ice (where I employed the foot-on-belly technique once after falling through some stream ice, followed by cutting the frozen laces with a swiss army knife) and the crisp feeling you get in your nose at about 10 below when you inhale. But no, I don't really miss it that much.
You know, there are a few things I miss about the NE cold, such as sea smoke, skating on black ice (where I employed the foot-on-belly technique once after falling through some stream ice, followed by cutting the frozen laces with a swiss army knife) and the crisp feeling you get in your nose at about 10 below when you inhale. But no, I don't really miss it that much.
Great photo - that's really what it was like! MW88888888, I think it would be interesting if you wrote up your trip in a new thread, given the local variations that people seem to have found. It looks like you may have been on fairly sunny slopes but didn't find the glopping that phil reported?
I'm afraid that we didn't get any such spectacular action photos, as our runs were mostly in the shade or bigger trees, but maybe that is what saved us from getting glopped. There will be some photos on TAY home page next Monday though, and possibly some movie links sooner than that (if Homeland Security and technical issues are resolved).
I'm afraid that we didn't get any such spectacular action photos, as our runs were mostly in the shade or bigger trees, but maybe that is what saved us from getting glopped. There will be some photos on TAY home page next Monday though, and possibly some movie links sooner than that (if Homeland Security and technical issues are resolved).
Skiied Kendall Ridge on Sunday ;D
It was just like the photo above. Truly amazing, couldn't believe I was at Snoqualmie. Our first run was on a south aspect clearcut on the skiier right side, it was just AMAZING!!
Our second run we went off skiier left, and we were finding some crust, and then as we dropped down to the rocky knob halfway down the clearcut, it got really warm and gloppy. That was probably around 3:30 or so.
Hope that wasn't the end of it. I plan to head up in elevation next time. Had to try snoqualmie while it was so cold. Wasn't disappointed.
It was just like the photo above. Truly amazing, couldn't believe I was at Snoqualmie. Our first run was on a south aspect clearcut on the skiier right side, it was just AMAZING!!
Our second run we went off skiier left, and we were finding some crust, and then as we dropped down to the rocky knob halfway down the clearcut, it got really warm and gloppy. That was probably around 3:30 or so.
Hope that wasn't the end of it. I plan to head up in elevation next time. Had to try snoqualmie while it was so cold. Wasn't disappointed.
Silas has posted a nice video of Russ at http://home.comcast.net/~silaswild/skiing/jo010404.mpg - check it out!
Looks like we must have been posting the link to this video at the same moment. For the record, Russ and I both agree this is Russ. I gotta say that it was fun watching said plumes from above (that's me watching Russ from above).
Tele skis, tele boots, tele bindings, but somehow I missed out on the tele turns ;)
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