April 11, 2004, Cutthroat Peak
4/11/04
WA Cascades East Slopes North
2301
3
Skinned up from Blue Lake parking lot to point 7250' just east of Cutthroat Peak. Easy skin up and fun ski down. The upper bowl is easily seen from near Washington Pass. Nice finish to 3 days of skiing at Washington Pass in near perfect weather.
Descent through the Larches (the high point at 7250' can be seen in the distance to the right).
Descent through the Larches (the high point at 7250' can be seen in the distance to the right).
Sounds like you hit it nicely!
Do you have any feeling for the snowpack in the area, say compared to last year or at least for its staying power?
Do you have any feeling for the snowpack in the area, say compared to last year or at least for its staying power?
Zenom -- If I have identified the trees in the pic, we were skiing the headwall just to the West of you on Saturday morning. By noon it was getting sloppy, but the W. side of the same ridge softened sufficiently to restart the yoyo machine. Good stuff.
Big Snow -- the snow pack is about 5' at the road. South facing slopes tend to be rubbled severely on higher angle slopes, and north facing slopes have a bit of a crust problem. But you can work the aspects, ski E. facing slopes in the morning, S. near noon, and W. facing in the afternoon for a full day in well consolidated corn. We were surprised how consisitently good the snow was, especially above 5500'.
On Friday we initiated the Birthday Tour. Excellent skiing, but the skinning up Copper Pass was tortuously hot in the PM. Sure made the beer taste good, though, when we got back to the cars!
Big Snow -- the snow pack is about 5' at the road. South facing slopes tend to be rubbled severely on higher angle slopes, and north facing slopes have a bit of a crust problem. But you can work the aspects, ski E. facing slopes in the morning, S. near noon, and W. facing in the afternoon for a full day in well consolidated corn. We were surprised how consisitently good the snow was, especially above 5500'.
On Friday we initiated the Birthday Tour. Excellent skiing, but the skinning up Copper Pass was tortuously hot in the PM. Sure made the beer taste good, though, when we got back to the cars!
The snow pack on these sun exposed southerly slopes leading up to Cutthroat Peak seems a bit low. While skining up the steep slopes near 5700' I could see the ground at tree wells, so the depth was only a couple feet in these places. The weather the past month hasn't done much for the snow's staying power. It seems like we're in Summer already.
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