February 29, 2004, Crooked Coulair, Snoqualmie Mt.

We skinned up the Phantom Slide, traversed over and dropped into Thunder Cr basin, and then booted/skinned up Crooked Coulair.  There were tracks in the Slot Coulair, but none in the Crooked.  The bottom of the Crooked Coulair was filled in and not icy; no rope needed.  The top of the Crooked had a 4 inch slab that broke off fairly easily from our skin up track.  It came off easily in a shovel test, too (a moderate tap on the shovel set it off).  However, nothing came loose in ski cuts on a steep test slope.  We skied back following our route up.  From top to bottom, we skied slabby snow, powder, avalanche cookies, breakable crust, spring corn and then heavy concrete.  It was a great day of skiing.