11/21/09, Snoqualmie Mt., Slot Couloir

Aaron Riggs, Steve Greenlaw and I toured up Snoqualmie Mt. from the Alpental parking lot taking the Phantom up. We were able to keep our skis on left of the waterfall. We were happy no booting was required through that section. The touring from there was somewhat strenuous due to the variety of the snow. We encountered deep powder, breakable crust, heavy wet snow, lots of groppel , and ice on SE facing slopes.
We only used hasty pits as we toured to evaluate conditions and ran into some 8€ slab layers on some SW slopes near ridges.
Once at the top I rappelled in and tested the slope with lots of ski cutting. Once it was determined it was safe enough to ski Steve rappelled in and Aaron skied.  We regrouped at the dogleg before I skied down. There were lots of sluffs but that was expected. The cliffs skiers right is a little on the narrow side but skiable. The bottom section was very fun with some wind affected powder. On the way out we opted not  to go up the notch SW of the Slot b/c would have sucked to boot up it. We decided to go a little west and tour up to the ridge.
On the way out the skiing was OK until the phantom where it had warmed up and got very heavy.
Aaron said he would post some pictures later. Overall it was a very satisfying day in the mountains for November.