January 24, 2004, Stevens
1/24/04
WA Stevens Pass
2454
1
As no one has posted anything from today yet, and some might be wondering about tomorrow - we visited some old roads and tall trees a few miles east of the pass. It snowed most of the day, at times quite hard, with a noticeable cooling as morning melted into afternoon. Above the hard crust formed in recent weeks, we found 3-6" of snow capped by a rain/melt freeze crust from Friday, weakening at higher elevations, but still present to near 6000 ft (our high point). Above, the newest snow was slabby in places and we cut a few sluffs, but these were all concentrated to the newest snow above the rain crust. In isolated columns, Thursday's snow looked to be poorly bonded to the hard early Jan crust, but in practice this was bridged well by the most recent crust.
It snowed most of the way home, with bits of recent snow on the ground as far west as Monroe.
It snowed most of the way home, with bits of recent snow on the ground as far west as Monroe.
We skied bc off of skyline ridge on Saturday. We encountered near 13" of new snow from the previous several days. ON S/SE aspects this surface layer was easily mobilzed on slopes >30 deg. Long, sustained steep pitches could be hazardous with this type of sloughing. But on the moderate slopes we were skiing, it was quite marvelous. Not quite as light as the snow from a couple weeks ago, but nice, deep powder for sure.
The slab below seems quite stable, with avy considerations moving up the column.
Had 4" on the car by the end of the day..skied the lifts on Sunday and plenty of pow there too.
The slab below seems quite stable, with avy considerations moving up the column.
Had 4" on the car by the end of the day..skied the lifts on Sunday and plenty of pow there too.
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