March 11, 2009, Snoqualmie Brunch
3/11/09
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2979
6
A late night left me leaving the car at the pass, already tired, at 7 am. Snow was mighty fine, largely 12-18" of velvety over a soft and firm base. Tracks from the weekend were pretty much invisible, though palpable. Followed a track from two folks from yesterday up - thank you for putting it in! Stellar views. Center punched a favorite line twice, and headed off to a very late start at work.
Snow: Surface hoar to 1/4" on all aspects and in the trees. Areas that get significant amounts of afternoon sun held a brittle and hollow sounding breakable crust that softened in the morning sun. North facing, sheltered, and shady was the place to be. Unconsolidated treebombs began to drop at ~11am.
Stability: Bond between the velvet and the firm was variable; good in places, powdery sluffs in others. Velvet was still unconsolidated, but blocks knocked off trees suggest that's changing soon.
So very glad to have gotten a little from this storm cycle! We live in one heck of a place.
Snow: Surface hoar to 1/4" on all aspects and in the trees. Areas that get significant amounts of afternoon sun held a brittle and hollow sounding breakable crust that softened in the morning sun. North facing, sheltered, and shady was the place to be. Unconsolidated treebombs began to drop at ~11am.
Stability: Bond between the velvet and the firm was variable; good in places, powdery sluffs in others. Velvet was still unconsolidated, but blocks knocked off trees suggest that's changing soon.
So very glad to have gotten a little from this storm cycle! We live in one heck of a place.
Hey Trumpetsailor - was that your maroon wagon closest to the turn around? If so we were an hour or so behind you. Nice using our track from Sunday, retrod by Jim O. yesterday.
We had a stellar 3 lap day, great having this lingering soft snow stay in good shape on the west slopes. Exposed south slope are starting to crust over.
We had a stellar 3 lap day, great having this lingering soft snow stay in good shape on the west slopes. Exposed south slope are starting to crust over.
author=russ link=topic=12632.msg52670#msg52670 date=1236822842]
Hey Trumpetsailor - was that your maroon wagon closest to the turn around? If so we were an hour or so behind you. Nice using our track from Sunday, retrod by Jim O. yesterday.
Yep. I recognized your car, and was surprised I didn't see you. Apologies for my not-so-snow-conserving lines, though there was still plenty to go around. I didn't really expect that there'd be much more traffic up there this week before the weekend weather arrived. Guess I was wrong!
Apologies for my not-so-snow-conserving lines, though there was still plenty to go around.
As you said - there was plenty of slope to go around. Judging from added tracks, I think there was at least 2 others up there today. But we didn't see them either - nice having semi-private mountains :) .
If I didn't have to work, there'd have been more tracks today...
If I weren't still at work, there'd be more tracks tomorrow, though perhaps not there. My USGS quads are full of mountains with northwest-facing slopes. Some of them even manage to escape the sun :).
Indeed, though sometimes there is the lure of the banged-out uptrack...
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