Home > Trip Reports > Jan 31, 2009, Silver Peak north slopes

Jan 31, 2009, Silver Peak north slopes

1/31/09
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2786
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Posted by John Morrow on 1/31/09 10:27am
East met West again as us Kittitas County folks: Margy, Pico, and I met up with Barb and Jim coming up from Seattle.  Jake came all the way from L-worth as well.

Took Nordic Pass trail from the Silver Fir Chair parking lot.  NOTE: a conscientious snowshoer preserved our trail to Nordic Pass by going along side it, giving us a more pleasant ski out.  Thank You unknown snowshoer and pass the word.  You deserve a metal.



Why say it again when Silas and Larry_R pretty much summed it up for us as we found much the same:

"Went up with low expectations and they were met. Every aspect was different:  dust on boilerplate, soft crust, packed sugary flour, and even nice wind affected powder above 5500'. Better than a day at the indoor gym, and better powder than we have seen since the big rains, just wish it continued to lower elevations."--Silas

"We found just a bit of everything on the way down; a few spots with maybe 8 inches softer snow (nice) but also crust, wind blown surfaces, and who knows what. Average backcountry now that I think of it. The trick was to find places that had not had any sun, and if we were lucky, were also in the lee of some sort of obstruction during the last snowfall(s)."--Larry



I have never seen so many people in the the NW bowl, ever.  Wind blew in powder to some East aspects but lot of mostly supportive crusts.  OK, not so bad that it prevented us from skinning up for a second run.

Still no camera, old one not fixed so no pics, sorry.
Anita, Phillip and myself were there as well. kinda crowded compared to normal. We wern't expecting much but were pleasantly suprised. Yes it was variable but no death crust. best skiing we had was in the trees leaving the bowls. How was the coverage in the trees east of Nordic pass? We skied in and out via the north part of the Catherine loop.

author=Robie link=topic=12118.msg50657#msg50657 date=1233460547]
Anita, Phillip and myself were there as well. kinda crowded compared to normal. We wern't expecting much but were pleasantly suprised. Yes it was variable but no death crust. best skiing we had was in the trees leaving the bowls. How was the coverage in the trees east of Nordic pass? We skied in and out via the north part of the Catherine loop.


Hey Robie,
The Nordic pass way out was pretty fun with about an inch of snow on top of a smooth crust.  On a steeper slope it would have been challenging  i.e. Mt. Catherine.
John

Thanks for the reply. Yes if you shopped around you could find blown in powder. Picture above 3-4" in that little swale.

Revisited the area Sunday on skinny skis (circa 2000, REI rental leftovers) via Rockdale Canyon.  Thanks for the great boot-track...at a certain point it got to be too much for the fishscales and I just hiked.  Great view from the knob in the upper basin.  "Virtual edge" (ugly) skiing back down to upper Ollalie road.  The 0-2 inches powder was totally wind- and therefore aspect-dependent.  Finished with a circle up Hidden Valley and back to the bottom of the new Silver Fir.  Yurt in place but no warming hut yet.; XC trails in great shape with the groomers maxing out on the upper Ollalie roads by ~ 10 AM!

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jan-31-2009-silver-peak-north-slopes
John Morrow
2009-01-31 18:27:28