January 2, 2004, The Slot Couloir, Snoqualmie Mt
1/2/04
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3833
6
Day 21
Snoqualmie Mountain, the Slot Couloir (The Enigma)
3,500' vertical skied
Entering the Couloir
Friday dawned as the perfect day for a new ski descent. Icy cold temps (the temperature gauge in the truck hit 16 degrees on the drive up, would you believe the coldest it had read since I had the car?! Yet...) and a new blanket of 5" (now remember, this on top of the 6" from yesterday and 20 odd inches from the week before) was just enough snow to cover any tracks, but not enough to hide up-tracks if you're looking for them. It proved a fast ascent day and an even better descent day with more knee deep powder and the accompanying chest shots.
After getting so close to the Slot Couloir the day before (indeed, we had been looking down it longingly), we were on a mission. We didn't need to inspect the Waterfall so we completely avoided the steep lower section, choosing to traverse along easy skin tracks far left of the Waterfall. Once above the Waterfall we emerged at the rollers of the Phantom slide path, but this time fresh and ready for action. Andrei and I took turns clearing the new fresh snow and cruised easily to the top of the slide path, this time with no company.
As we climbed we could hear a helicopter flying about the Alpental valley and our curiosity was peaked. My first thought was that they were on a rescue mission, or were recovering the buried body of a snowshoer caught weeks before. But the Helicopter never landed (we could see it from our position), and just circled lazily up and down the valley. Odd. For the next two days we would hear the thumping of the rotors around the pass. It wouldn't be until our last day would we find out the real story. Until then, it was like we were skiing in the Wasatch with the Buy-Your-Turns groups annoying the solitude of the mountains.
When we reached the couloir, the clouds slowly rolled around the rocky summit area creating quite a lot of drama. Not that we needed any. Both Andrei and I prepared on the lip of the couloir, looking down at its untracked maw in awe. The entrance was a five foot wide snow tongue that led to a relatively flat bench at the top of the couloir. Beyond, the chute dropped away at an unknown angle and took a left into the hallway of rock walls that gave the couloir it name. It was impossible to see the whole couloir from the top and this made it very intimidating. The only way to see if it went was to get right into it and hope.
I dropped in first and shimmied my way down the 5 foot wide entrance to the relatively flat shelf above the real business. The snow was fantastic, with a half a foot of fresh or more covering the soft snow underneath. Looking down the 40 degree couloir my anxiety eased and I became very excited. I yelled up to Andrei that it looked fantastic and come on down. When he dropped in, I asked if he'd like to take the first section as I had an awesome picture lined up for a skier entering the couloir. He took the bait, and jump turned his way down, with hoots of happiness and a train of powder snow, and stopped at the left hand turn. Now it was my turn and it was unbelievable. The steepness really wasn't that bad, at least at the start, and the snow continued to get better as we descended.
Once at the turn, the middle and exit of the couloir was revealed in all its glory. The couloir was literally carved out of the rock wall of the north face of Snoqualmie mountain and the steep middle section had huge rock walls on either side, creating a sense of claustrophobia. As we skied the middle, a constant stream of snow cascaded down the right side of the couloir in a calming river babble. We played tag through the steeps and the couloir opened up in the lower end and held awesome wind protected powder. At this point all anxiety was gone and we played gleefully until we exited the bottom. The exit fan below the couloir was lightly treed and also had marvelous powder, but the clouds had rolled in so we skied by sense of smell to the base of the bowl under the north face. Yee Haw!
We donned climbing attire once more and climbed the 700' back up to the West Ridge Notch, and were treated to clearing skies so we could enjoy the view as we left the secluded valley. Having to climb the West Ridge Notch couloir without skiing it was a crime, but we consoled ourselves that we could get another 2,100' vertical of powder back down to the car. We decided to ski the glades that I had skied before and were treated, yes, to a bounty of untracked, chest pounding powder. We saw no one until we reached the car, and could hardly speak on the drive back down to the house.
(continued on January 3rd, Mt Catherine)
Snoqualmie Mountain, the Slot Couloir (The Enigma)
3,500' vertical skied
Entering the Couloir
Friday dawned as the perfect day for a new ski descent. Icy cold temps (the temperature gauge in the truck hit 16 degrees on the drive up, would you believe the coldest it had read since I had the car?! Yet...) and a new blanket of 5" (now remember, this on top of the 6" from yesterday and 20 odd inches from the week before) was just enough snow to cover any tracks, but not enough to hide up-tracks if you're looking for them. It proved a fast ascent day and an even better descent day with more knee deep powder and the accompanying chest shots.
After getting so close to the Slot Couloir the day before (indeed, we had been looking down it longingly), we were on a mission. We didn't need to inspect the Waterfall so we completely avoided the steep lower section, choosing to traverse along easy skin tracks far left of the Waterfall. Once above the Waterfall we emerged at the rollers of the Phantom slide path, but this time fresh and ready for action. Andrei and I took turns clearing the new fresh snow and cruised easily to the top of the slide path, this time with no company.
As we climbed we could hear a helicopter flying about the Alpental valley and our curiosity was peaked. My first thought was that they were on a rescue mission, or were recovering the buried body of a snowshoer caught weeks before. But the Helicopter never landed (we could see it from our position), and just circled lazily up and down the valley. Odd. For the next two days we would hear the thumping of the rotors around the pass. It wouldn't be until our last day would we find out the real story. Until then, it was like we were skiing in the Wasatch with the Buy-Your-Turns groups annoying the solitude of the mountains.
When we reached the couloir, the clouds slowly rolled around the rocky summit area creating quite a lot of drama. Not that we needed any. Both Andrei and I prepared on the lip of the couloir, looking down at its untracked maw in awe. The entrance was a five foot wide snow tongue that led to a relatively flat bench at the top of the couloir. Beyond, the chute dropped away at an unknown angle and took a left into the hallway of rock walls that gave the couloir it name. It was impossible to see the whole couloir from the top and this made it very intimidating. The only way to see if it went was to get right into it and hope.
I dropped in first and shimmied my way down the 5 foot wide entrance to the relatively flat shelf above the real business. The snow was fantastic, with a half a foot of fresh or more covering the soft snow underneath. Looking down the 40 degree couloir my anxiety eased and I became very excited. I yelled up to Andrei that it looked fantastic and come on down. When he dropped in, I asked if he'd like to take the first section as I had an awesome picture lined up for a skier entering the couloir. He took the bait, and jump turned his way down, with hoots of happiness and a train of powder snow, and stopped at the left hand turn. Now it was my turn and it was unbelievable. The steepness really wasn't that bad, at least at the start, and the snow continued to get better as we descended.
Once at the turn, the middle and exit of the couloir was revealed in all its glory. The couloir was literally carved out of the rock wall of the north face of Snoqualmie mountain and the steep middle section had huge rock walls on either side, creating a sense of claustrophobia. As we skied the middle, a constant stream of snow cascaded down the right side of the couloir in a calming river babble. We played tag through the steeps and the couloir opened up in the lower end and held awesome wind protected powder. At this point all anxiety was gone and we played gleefully until we exited the bottom. The exit fan below the couloir was lightly treed and also had marvelous powder, but the clouds had rolled in so we skied by sense of smell to the base of the bowl under the north face. Yee Haw!
We donned climbing attire once more and climbed the 700' back up to the West Ridge Notch, and were treated to clearing skies so we could enjoy the view as we left the secluded valley. Having to climb the West Ridge Notch couloir without skiing it was a crime, but we consoled ourselves that we could get another 2,100' vertical of powder back down to the car. We decided to ski the glades that I had skied before and were treated, yes, to a bounty of untracked, chest pounding powder. We saw no one until we reached the car, and could hardly speak on the drive back down to the house.
(continued on January 3rd, Mt Catherine)
Nice report. I too have stared with mixture of longing and terror into the masked entrance of Slot a couple of times now, but both times we opted out (first time on midweek morning w lack of time to do the whole circuit including climb back over W Ridge so opted descent of Phantom, and second time earlier risers beating us to Slot so opted Crooked instead). It's nice to hear something of what lies beyond the bend. So would you snowboard this thing (or did you?) Personally I'm still less confident on the board when the entrances get to be that narrow, and bring the skis for stuff like that even if the ascent would have been palatable as a boot up. I'm also curious what conditions encourage some parties to belay the skier dropping in first and have them skicut the bejeezus out of the starting slope, since I've heard that folks do that sometime. (Obviously I'll be making my own personal decision on that the next time I'm there per the conditions, but I was curious what the "general consensus" on that might be.)
Well you can do jump turns on a snowboard too. Anything to avoid the infamous heelside powder-slide!
Man that looks cool now if I only had a real split instead of my temperamental home-job.
Man that looks cool now if I only had a real split instead of my temperamental home-job.
In the 3 separate occasions that I've skied the Slot, I've never seen any need whatsoever to belay the entrance...never even thought of it until this last time when the people following us offered a belay and we declined.
That being said: The Slot it way too steep and scary to ski! A better choice for your day of recreation at the Pass would be to ride the Magic Carpet over at Summit Central ;D
That being said: The Slot it way too steep and scary to ski! A better choice for your day of recreation at the Pass would be to ride the Magic Carpet over at Summit Central ;D
Yes, I was snowboarding, I had my 164 short board on this descent. I use snowshoes, btw, so I don't worry about $600 snowboards or iffy home jobs (not that either are bad, just not my style).
My particular style of snowboarding is probably indecernable from a skier's, I did jump turns down the steep sections and half of a powder eight the remainder (hense my name: MW88888888 - those are my tracks, dude, and you probably can't tell if I was skiing or snowboarding!). That said, side slipping a couloir is not the only realm of snowboarding, I've seen many a fine skier resort to a powder plow. In either case as long as the move is warrented due to the route, so be it. I think people get PO'd when a rookie side slips a slope, and that happens regardless of the tool they are using. wolfs has it right - get to the steep stuff when you're ready, on tele gear, alpine or snowboard.
Anyway, I'm also intersted to hear how others have entered the couloir and in what conditions - the hairier the better! I wouldn't touch the thing on a day of 10" or more of new - very steep and narrow for a potential huge pile at the bottom with you in it. But it is a couloir, so I would imagine if you could get the top to go w/o you in it, it would be safe for a subsequent descent. But what the hell do I know!?!
My particular style of snowboarding is probably indecernable from a skier's, I did jump turns down the steep sections and half of a powder eight the remainder (hense my name: MW88888888 - those are my tracks, dude, and you probably can't tell if I was skiing or snowboarding!). That said, side slipping a couloir is not the only realm of snowboarding, I've seen many a fine skier resort to a powder plow. In either case as long as the move is warrented due to the route, so be it. I think people get PO'd when a rookie side slips a slope, and that happens regardless of the tool they are using. wolfs has it right - get to the steep stuff when you're ready, on tele gear, alpine or snowboard.
Anyway, I'm also intersted to hear how others have entered the couloir and in what conditions - the hairier the better! I wouldn't touch the thing on a day of 10" or more of new - very steep and narrow for a potential huge pile at the bottom with you in it. But it is a couloir, so I would imagine if you could get the top to go w/o you in it, it would be safe for a subsequent descent. But what the hell do I know!?!
not to sound too cavalier...But the good thing about the Slot is that once you are in it, you've got that awkward fall-line to the right. As long as you choose your line wisely and are solid on your edges, if you peel anything loose, it's going to sluff off to skier's right.
But seriously: The Magic Carpet over at Central is a way better time! ;D
But seriously: The Magic Carpet over at Central is a way better time! ;D
I've skied the slot twice, once we climbed it before skiing, the other time I went from the top blind, but it had been previously been skied that day. I have noticed that the snow in the first rope length or two is a different than the rest - it tends to be more wind effected and more shallow than the rest. Because if this, I'm wondering how much of a representative sample one gets by skiing the first rope length on belay, especially if the belay anchor is set on one of the large trees above the couloir. One might need to go two rope lengths into it to get a more accurate assessment especially with a shorter rope, which causes logistical issues - where do you put your second anchor a rope length down? In the snow you are concerned about sliding?
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