Jan 23, 2010, Snoqualmie

Yeah!  Snoqualmie skied way better than I was expecting today, and it should only get better tomorrow and Monday.

Heads up:  north aspect snowpack up high is much different than warmer aspects.  The multiple, supportable crusts are absent and things seemed not to have stabilized much.  We skinned to the top of the Chair Peak bowl and dug a pit on a 38 degree slope, 330 degrees aspect, 5400 feet.  We got CT12 Q2 in the old snow, several inches below the new snow-old snow interface, and 5 inches below that CT15 Q2 on another weak layer in the old snow.  There didn't look to be much propagation in the extend column test we tried, but that and the very poor visibility was enough to turn us around rather than continuing north down to snow lake.   I found this result quite surprising given the mild weather we've had lately.  I guess things  haven't been quite so mild up higher where there's been cold easterly flow.

author=md2020 link=topic=15305.msg64092#msg64092 date=1264299105]
I was up messing around the power lines above Grand Junction today, and I was kind of surprised to find around 5" of new snow that I was actually able to have a good time on.

I was out there too. Great to be skiing some fresh snow again, and yes it was good!

author=andyrew link=topic=15305.msg64093#msg64093 date=1264300112]
Heads up:  north aspect snowpack up high is much different than warmer aspects.  The multiple, supportable crusts are absent and things seemed not to have stabilized much.

Thanks for the heads up.

Sounds like a good time at the power lines yesterday.  I bet it was even better at the radio towers, although that's just from observations.  The wind was sure wild on outback today.