January 10, 2009, Hurricane Ridge
1/10/09
WA Olympics
2180
1
Myself, Sastrugi Slicer, Dan, Lisa, and young buck Ty headed up to the Ridge to poke around and get some turns in with the "considerable" forecast in mind. First run was down the east side towards the road. While a hasty pit close to the top of the ridge was not really representative of a convexity which caused some concern (only 2.5 feet to dirt) it did reveal the forecasted instability. This was the windward side. No doubt the snowpack at the convexity was much deeper. Regardless, said pit revealed an easy-yet-not-clean shear about 8" down. And then another pretty easy shear below that. Then, a hard slab and a little sugar at the bottom. So we went conservative and took a tree run to the road. Semi crusty-ish but I think we all got some face shots at times. And then we all got schooled but some super hardpack just above the road. 3 of us got a ride by a field biologist heading up to snowshoe - THANKS!
Next run, back to the top of the ridge, and down the other side a little bit towards the poma. Dug another hasty, 6' down to dirt. Again, semi sketchy with various instabilities. We skied trees and low angle terrain down to the bottom of the poma. Not easy stuff to ski but not aweful either. And it was all untracked. Went further down probably another 500' vert below poma, battled through a little slide alder, where the snowpack got a lot thinner (still adequate - nobody touched any rocks or anything) but much more solid. Then a long and relatively arduous skin up towards the ridge to the north part of the bowl - thanks to the 51 y.o. young buck Dan, and the much younger buck 23 y.o. Ty, for breaking trail while the rest of us kicked back and wiped our goggles from sleety wet snow. Temps were rising and it was gusting SEerly. That ridge dumped us out at the top of the first run.
From there 3 of us went down almost in the same place as the first run, while the two others graciously got the rigs and picked us up at the road. The upper soft slab had definitely increased in density as per the forecast. We all pretty much flailed. Ty kept trying to ski into me right above the road for whatever the reason. Kids these days! Cold Rainiers completed the day - thanks Ty!
Some face shots and we all returned with 10 fingers and 10 toes - SUCCESS!
Next run, back to the top of the ridge, and down the other side a little bit towards the poma. Dug another hasty, 6' down to dirt. Again, semi sketchy with various instabilities. We skied trees and low angle terrain down to the bottom of the poma. Not easy stuff to ski but not aweful either. And it was all untracked. Went further down probably another 500' vert below poma, battled through a little slide alder, where the snowpack got a lot thinner (still adequate - nobody touched any rocks or anything) but much more solid. Then a long and relatively arduous skin up towards the ridge to the north part of the bowl - thanks to the 51 y.o. young buck Dan, and the much younger buck 23 y.o. Ty, for breaking trail while the rest of us kicked back and wiped our goggles from sleety wet snow. Temps were rising and it was gusting SEerly. That ridge dumped us out at the top of the first run.
From there 3 of us went down almost in the same place as the first run, while the two others graciously got the rigs and picked us up at the road. The upper soft slab had definitely increased in density as per the forecast. We all pretty much flailed. Ty kept trying to ski into me right above the road for whatever the reason. Kids these days! Cold Rainiers completed the day - thanks Ty!
Some face shots and we all returned with 10 fingers and 10 toes - SUCCESS!
Thanks for assembling the posse. It was fun to ski old haunts with new folks. ;D
Reply to this TR
Please login first: