Jan 31, 09, Snoqualmie, Slot

nicely done!  how'd the crooked couloir exit look?  curious if its filled in enough to not need a rope thru the narrow bit at the end. 

author=Pete A link=topic=12116.msg50639#msg50639 date=1233446910]
nicely done!   how'd the crooked couloir exit look?  curious if its filled in enough to not need a rope thru the narrow bit at the end.   

crooked exit looked real slim Jason said after having looked up it, phantom had softened up nicely by the time we came down

Nice work finding some goods in the less than desirable conditions! 

it did not suck 




      thanks everyone for a great morning tour  !

Stability concerns?

We were just east of you and turned around at 5200 ft, strong swirling winds moving lots of snow around.  Settlements, 5-10 ft cracks when breaking trail through wind slabs, a few compression tests failing on zero or 1 tap.  You get the idea.  This was on predominantly NW facing terrain.  We turned tail and ran!

author=ski_photomatt link=topic=12116.msg50648#msg50648 date=1233454992]
Stability concerns?

Interesting - we were nearby as well; biggest settlements I heard/felt were in fairly open W facing areas between 3.5 and 4.5k. They rarely spanned more than shoulder width and ski length.  On sheltered windward slopes above 5k, I found mostly blown-in and wind-arranged powder that, while barely bonded to the crust below, didn't have any cohesion at all. Good to hear that the instability I'd been expecting turned up somewhere at the Pass.

Stability concerns?

going up the phantom we avoided as much as possible open / loaded terrain, using mini ridges and other features for traveling.  evidence of wind loading definitely from 4-12" in places, crust under this, bonding to crust was good though.  we experienced no whumphing or shooting cracks.  in the slot our concerns were heightened.  upper section had about a 6" slab that came off clean between turns.  we as much as was allowed by the configuration eased into the slope, one a time, shorter sections, spotting, ski cutting.  the top slab was not our major concern.  there was another layer about 18" thick under the overnight wind loaded slab on top of the crust.  dug several hand pits and it was about 1 F hard and it generally seemed well bonded to the underlying crust.  had the bond to the crust been poor or very variable we probably would have climbed back up again.

Nice job on the first Slot report of the season (I think?)
I was wondering when we would get one of those reports, but I never thought it would be in this drought. Very nice indeed!!!