Home > Trip Reports > May 24, 2009, - Silver Peak

May 24, 2009, - Silver Peak

5/24/09
WA Snoqualmie Pass
7265
17
Posted by Salal on 5/25/09 3:32am
Parked at the pumphouse and slogged up cold creek to the north side of silver yesterday. Nothing of importance to report except some of the worst pollen ridden snow I've encountered in a while. Also the cliff north of the summit "exploded" either yesterday morning or the day before. It was showering down lots of rock the entire time....pretty impressive.













Wow - that's an impressive bit of rockfall there. I don't recall seeing that happen up there before - looks like an interesting event.

Any take on how much snow is let to melt between the pumphouse and Windy Pass on FR 9070? It took until nearly the end of June last year...

If I didn't know that was pollen on the bottom of your board I'd think it was the shilouette of conifers rising over rolling glades.

Nice tracks...that rock "blast" is pretty impressive!

Here's what it looks like from 6,500 feet!  If you look closely you can see our tracks!

Fun day, glad we hit it up!

Anyone got any ideas on how to get that crap of the bottom of the boards?

A steel scraper, resolve and citrus cleaner will do the trick.  Good luck... not fun.

Wow!!!

We were up there Saturday morning from about 10:00 am, leaving the area around 1:30 pm.

My guess is that must have come down some time later in the afternoon?

We could hear falling rock from the same location.
While these were small and isolated incidents and we had stayed clear of that area.

author=Jim Oker link=topic=13435.msg55904#msg55904 date=1243276871]
Wow - that's an impressive bit of rockfall there. I don't recall seeing that happen up there before - looks like an interesting event.


On Saturday we were looking at that face while eating lunch from the knoll, commenting about how the wall that ran from the snow up to the summit had been in the process of cleaving off in recent years...

Does anyone know/think it got cold enough to freeze on Saturday night?  My guess is that is did and the expansion of the ice finally won out over the strength of the rock..

The pics were taken right around 2-3:30 on Sunday. It must have broke Sat night/Sunday morning!

Seems plausible.
I just looked at some pictures I took Friday afternoon from a similar angle from the Knoll.
It's pretty clear that rock close to the top of the face separated and came down, also triggering the slide below. Water seeping in from the top, freezing/contracting then expanding seems likely.
Saturday morning surface snow was firm early on, softening quickly.

We were up there on Monday. Drove in on Rd 9070,got just past Mill Creek crossing before having to walk it. Continuous snow past second hairpin. Maybe another week or so before you can drive to that point. Bring your scraper! It is the worst pollen I have ever encountered.

I think you guys passed me. I was riding my MC up the road.

Jim- The road is about 75% covered with snow..a little melted out on the switchbacks but I think it will at least be another three weeks or so.

author=Ride_fly_bike_live link=topic=13435.msg55941#msg55941 date=1243346899]
Anyone got any ideas on how to get that crap of the bottom of the boards?


Green Scotch-Brite pad and some elbow grease.

author=Ride_fly_bike_live link=topic=13435.msg55941#msg55941 date=1243346899]
Anyone got any ideas on how to get that crap of the bottom of the boards?


Best bet for cleaning bottoms is to wax and scrape.  The wax adheres to the pollen and pitch and scraping removes it all.  Cleaners, including citrus, do the job but dry out the p-tex and it may never fully recover.

A rectangle of plexiglass with nice sharp corners (aka "scraper") and a green scotchbrite pad seemed to do the trick pretty well for me this weekend, though the pollen I accumulated was not the stickiest stuff I've ever seen, so YMMV.

Looked like the fresh wax job under the pollen was pretty intact when the deed was done.

Whoa Bro!  Erosion happens.

The pollen has been tolerable on our tours E of the crest, e.g. Dragontail via Asgaard on Sunday and BD Tour on previous Sunday.

Has anyone tried Hertel's Spring Solution wax?  Hertel claims that it is formulated to glide when pollen-fouled.  I bought a brick of it last spring, ironed it in a couple pairs of skis, but never gave it a good test because, IME, pollen was not a problem last spring.

My favorite low-tech pollen cleaner is WD-40 and a rag.  Cleans it right off and doesn't dry the base as much as more conventional solvents.  At home - a hot wax including scraping does the job with no solvents.

That rockfall is impressive -- and right in the center of one of my favorite spring runs :(

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may-24-2009-silver-peak
Salal
2009-05-25 10:32:07