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Topic: Jan. 25, 2009; Near Blewett Pass (Read 1241 times)
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cascadesfreak
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Posts: 356
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Traveled primarily on north and east aspects from about 4,000-to-6,000 feet. The Arctic front of Saturday night brought about a 1-inch snow dusting to Blewett Pass, along with temps in the single digits. Crust underlying the dust was semi-breakable/crunchy on north aspects, but overall quite supportable on easterly aspects. Huge surface hoar crystals (beneath the fresh snow dusting) seemed abundant in wind-sheltered areas. Upward progress was slowed considerably at times while navigating spots of glare ice in the forest. Needless to say, surface snow conditions on the approach didn’t look too promising for fun turns. After a bit of map consultation and scouting, we found our “gem”: about 3-to-4 inches of fresh wind-drifted blower powder on an open E-NE aspect starting near 6,000-ft. Enjoyed astonishingly nice shallow powder turns for ~1,000 vertical feet to the valley floor (the crust underneath was generally smooth and very supportable; and surprisingly not very noticeable for the first several turns; a bit sluffy (though not slabby) on the steepish drop-in at the top of the slope). A quick “adventure ski” back through the forest brought us to lower open slopes for some additional fun (though crustier) turns before returning to the highway.
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alpymarr
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Posts: 183
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Right on. Good call on mapping out windblown, I'm jealous. Good to see a little bit of spray coming off turns. I don't even remember what skiing blower pow is like anymore, the last time I had any of that was in Utah a month ago....hopefully a change is coming. Thanks for the stoke!!
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Logged
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I love big dumps
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John_Morrow
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Headed out there yesterday and found much the same on some other slopes as well. The key was finding the lee sides where that little bit of new snow blew in. That slope you hit is so often reliable for just that, like you found out Sunday. Can also hold some interesting wind slab as a result also when the snowfall is more significant! Gotta love that trail ski! Fortunately a USFS trail crew folk went out with some Washington Ski Touring Club/Ellensburg Ski Club members and logged and brushed it out in November. Thanks to the WSTC/ESC for the good work in the area!
Snowing in Roslyn at the Moment! 1/2 inch of new in the past hour!
OK, this is meant with good intentions: thanks for keeping the "GEM" vague, Cascadesfreak. Many folks on this side have let other folks discover it on their own with map, Google Earth, aerial photos, etc. Always fun to use one's own tools and senses for discovery as you did. NOTE: I AM JUST THE MESSENGER!
John
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« Last Edit: 01/27/09, 07:25 AM by John_Morrow »
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juan
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Posts: 188
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Way to sniff out the goods, Chris!
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Kyle Miller
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at this point it is all about the windblown Powder
Good work
We had similar conditions in the Crystal B.C.
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Larry_R
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Fortunately a USFS trail crew folk went out with some Washington Ski Touring Club/Ellensburg Ski Club members and logged and brushed it out in November. Thanks to the WSTC/ESC for the good work in the area!
John, as I remember, you had something to do with this too!  I want to congratulate the FS for their responsiveness to the needs of non-motorized users of this area. I think that it might be possible to do other cool things with very limited additional funds. Like running the groomer down Road 800 now and again. (The shed where the FS groomer is kept is very close to the origin of Rd. 800, so it would not take much, and that groomer is out frequently grooming the very extensive snowmobile routes in the area.)
Larry
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