March 26, 2004, Upper Nason Creek, Stevens Pass

Matt, Tom, and I parked at the lower Stevens lot and skied up upper Nason Creek to do a couple of runs from the Crest in the nice forest. Down low (3600-4000') there was 2" new overnight over a substantial wet, large-granular layer. From 4000-5200' where we gained the Crest, the overnight layer deepened to 4", and there was an additional 4" of newer (1-2 days old) snow under that overlying the mostly supportive layer of aged, granular snow. The weather was very calm, flurries, with some weak solar warming at times. Right on the Crest there were mild signs of wind effects, mostly just a thinner layer of new snow over firm crust.

We first skied a ~1000' S-facing run, which had nice turns at first in the open, then less good as the snow was more cohesive, and then really nice cruising through the trees. After lunch we skinned up to a 5560+ bump on the Crest, west of Lake Valhalla. The turns on this run were very enjoyable down to ~4400', especially in the trees. Skiing back down to Nason Creek below that, the amount of new snow lessened and the terrain became more varied (lots of humps and dips), and the skiing became more difficult because the snow was faster with less new overlying the old layer. Nice trip and nice terrain - can't wait to get back there with good spring conditions and fishscale skis as the exploring options are almost limitless.