March 10, 2004, Snoqualmie Mt./Slot Couloir

Beautiful weather prompted us to get out and tour Snoqualmie Mt. again, and khyak, as the above pic will attest, came ready for the projected 60 degree temps by wearing shorts . . . skin up went easily, tried to stay in the trees as the snow was firmer than out in the open on the Phantom. At about 4,800 ft the soft upper layer started sliding out on us, but the notch over to the back side came shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the north facing aspects were still frozen solid, so the ski left something to be desired. Traversed over under the Slot/Crooked Couloirs, still frozen up pretty hard. The Crooked has lost a lot of snow in the past week or so, the rocks are out in force at the bottom and a lot of small trees have popped up above the bend. Booted up the Slot (hard and icy, Whippets or ice axe would have been nice) and skied carefully down in heinous rain-hardened & runnelled conditions (TLT toepiece in "tour" position!). Traversed past the Snoqualmie Mt. notch and looked at several other notches to the north, none of which looked to offer a decent traverse back toward Alpental. In the end we ended up going almost to Snow Lake and skiing through the cliffs that rise over the Snow Lake Trail - super manky snow that flowed downhill in an almost liquid stream as we traversed past, and very difficult to turn in. Followed the Snow Lake Trail and snowshoe tracks back to the parking lot . . . BTW, the waterfall finish to the Phantom is melting out fast, there is only a narrow snow bridge over the stream at bottom to ski out on, and I'm not sure I'd trust it.