February 15, 2009, Mount Rainier NP -- Tatoosh
2/15/09
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3884
6
Scottk and I headed down to Rainier hoping to find some powder on north facing slopes in the Tatoosh. We arrived to some inauspicious looking skies and lots of wind blowing hard out of the east.
On our way up to the Castle saddle, we met a group of guys who had skied the area yesterday and camped overnight. They had already been up to the saddle that morning and said the skiing wasn't great as the wind had affected lots of the snow up high. Hearing that, feeling the ongoing wind gusts and seeing group after group heading in that direction, we opted to try and find some better snow in the basin below Pinnacle and Plummer.
On our skin over, we carefully crossed several open north-facing slopes below Pinnacle. The first didn't look too appealing (wind slab and some cracking up high which we bypassed by dropping down and crossing one at a time much lower down) but we found conditions more inviting in the second one with more trees to provide some protection. No winds and little evidence of wind effect in the lower part of the slope. We avoided the highest sections, which had some wind slab, and ended up taking several great laps on 10 inches of soft, unconsolidated powder on a firm base with no signs of instability.
We then headed over to the basin below Plummer and Pinnacle finding a skin track heading up that was put in either earlier in the day or the day before. We took it all the way to the saddle and took in some nice views to the south. No evidence of slide activity in the basin. The ski down wasn't nearly as good as what we had earlier in the day. In fact, it was pretty cruddy up high. Conditions varied ever few turns and there was plenty of breakable crust to keep it interesting. Lower down things got much better including a great stretch of powder on the last several hundred feet down to basin around Tatoosh Creek.
From there it was up to the road and a short trip down the Narada Face which was still holding some fresh snow and good turns.
On our way up to the Castle saddle, we met a group of guys who had skied the area yesterday and camped overnight. They had already been up to the saddle that morning and said the skiing wasn't great as the wind had affected lots of the snow up high. Hearing that, feeling the ongoing wind gusts and seeing group after group heading in that direction, we opted to try and find some better snow in the basin below Pinnacle and Plummer.
On our skin over, we carefully crossed several open north-facing slopes below Pinnacle. The first didn't look too appealing (wind slab and some cracking up high which we bypassed by dropping down and crossing one at a time much lower down) but we found conditions more inviting in the second one with more trees to provide some protection. No winds and little evidence of wind effect in the lower part of the slope. We avoided the highest sections, which had some wind slab, and ended up taking several great laps on 10 inches of soft, unconsolidated powder on a firm base with no signs of instability.
We then headed over to the basin below Plummer and Pinnacle finding a skin track heading up that was put in either earlier in the day or the day before. We took it all the way to the saddle and took in some nice views to the south. No evidence of slide activity in the basin. The ski down wasn't nearly as good as what we had earlier in the day. In fact, it was pretty cruddy up high. Conditions varied ever few turns and there was plenty of breakable crust to keep it interesting. Lower down things got much better including a great stretch of powder on the last several hundred feet down to basin around Tatoosh Creek.
From there it was up to the road and a short trip down the Narada Face which was still holding some fresh snow and good turns.
You're finding the goods this week, iluka. Nice job!
author=iluka link=topic=12317.msg51464#msg51464 date=1234759144]
We then headed over to the basin below Plummer and Pinnacle finding a skin track heading up that was put in either earlier in the day or the day before. We took it all the way to the saddle and took in some nice views to the south.
Pretty lucky. A skillfully laid uptrack with no turns down the entire drainage. ::)
Glad you enjoyed it.
I hope that you had better luck than me in finding consistently good snow. I looked all over and on every aspect. It can be so tricky to figure out why and where the crusts will be. I had some good turns but often they were interrupted by patches of crust. At least it felt like winter.
Saturday was a treat with 8-12" in most of the area. Right below the saddle there was styrofoam wind pack, and on the steeper north facing slopes just above the the lakes, natural sluffing occured reducing snowpack down to about 2-4" on the main glades. North and NW slopes in particular seemed to hold the the best snow with with no evidience of the ice layer. However, the ice layer below was very evident on the ascent and skinning was difficult on steeper aspects (new skin track), but overall stability was better than I thought it would be. A mix of sun, clouds, then snow to end the day. The narada face was perfect.
author=Snow Bell link=topic=12317.msg51490#msg51490 date=1234813714]
A skillfully laid uptrack with no turns down the entire drainage.
We appreciated the uptrack and wondered why there were no down tracks. Where did you ski down?
I would also point out that there were isolated pockets of wind slab (generally up high) with evidence of cracking in some instances. We stayed away from those areas, in one case dropping a couple hundred feet of elevation to avoid a questionable slope. The bowl below the saddle was wind-affected but quite stable based on qualitative tests.
author=cjm720 link=topic=12317.msg51498#msg51498 date=1234817840]
Saturday was a treat with 8-12" in most of the area. Right below the saddle there was styrofoam wind pack, and on the steeper north facing slopes just above the the lakes, natural sluffing occured reducing snowpack down to about 2-4" on the main glades. North and NW slopes in particular seemed to hold the the best snow with with no evidience of the ice layer. However, the ice layer below was very evident on the ascent and skinning was difficult on steeper aspects (new skin track), but overall stability was better than I thought it would be. A mix of sun, clouds, then snow to end the day. The narada face was perfect.
Lots & lots went this weekend if the tracks were any evidence today; we didn't get beyond the front of Mazama and the slopes above the paradise valley road, the powder was so good! My last run down on the slopes above the road at 1:30 or so showed some slab formation with shooting cracks at every turn and some thin (upper layer, nice deep loose powder below) slab releases (nothing dangerous) and, of course there were so many tracks propagation couldn't go very far ...
As of yesterday still good snow on the north side, although it's beginning to look like a ski area with moguls forming in some of the gulleys. The south side is mostly untracked due to abundant sun crust. Super highway skin track
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