February 19 - Snoqualmie Pass, Red Mtn.
2/15/10
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3986
8
After reading tales of corn on Granite's south face, Pete, Andy and I decided to play hooky on Friday and head up the Commonwealth to (we hoped!) harvest some corn on Red's south face. Skinned up through the trees and emerged on the south face of Red where we were met with very firm snow and chunky avi debris. Pete and I were glad to have the ski crampons, but Andy and his mad skills blazed a trail sans crampons so they certainly weren't required. The skinning got a little too steep and dicey for our collective taste so we switched to booting at about 5500ft. We were a little dismayed to find we were kicking steps through an easily breakable one to two inch crust and started to fear what the descent may be like. We persevered and topped out to ridiculous views in all directions - the top of Adams was even visible! Not too windy so we had a leisurely lunch break and soaked in the sun until about 1:00.
Pete spied a slightly shaded westerly facing line on the way up and declared that he thought it would be holding powder. Andy and I looked at eachother skeptically and offered Pete first tracks. Sure enough, there were a handful of slightly crusty, but still powdery turns to be had! And it had the added bonus of allowing us to avoid most of the breakable crust we'd booted up. We traversed back to the more south facing terrain and picked our way down through the softening avi debris (just point release debris so nothing too bad). Not super smooth, but still perfectly skiable and kind of corn-like. We got a couple hundred feet of legitimate corn snow a little further down before we had to duck back in to the trees. The ski out was a predictably icy luge track, but for some reason I always enjoy those so for me it was a good ski from top to bottom.
We sauntered back to the car around 3:30 and in an ongoing effort to get our money's worth out of our season passes, took a victory lap at Summit West right when they opened so we had the place quite literally to ourselves.
Pete will post photos later.
Pete spied a slightly shaded westerly facing line on the way up and declared that he thought it would be holding powder. Andy and I looked at eachother skeptically and offered Pete first tracks. Sure enough, there were a handful of slightly crusty, but still powdery turns to be had! And it had the added bonus of allowing us to avoid most of the breakable crust we'd booted up. We traversed back to the more south facing terrain and picked our way down through the softening avi debris (just point release debris so nothing too bad). Not super smooth, but still perfectly skiable and kind of corn-like. We got a couple hundred feet of legitimate corn snow a little further down before we had to duck back in to the trees. The ski out was a predictably icy luge track, but for some reason I always enjoy those so for me it was a good ski from top to bottom.
We sauntered back to the car around 3:30 and in an ongoing effort to get our money's worth out of our season passes, took a victory lap at Summit West right when they opened so we had the place quite literally to ourselves.
Pete will post photos later.
author=BeckyB link=topic=15694.msg65540#msg65540 date=1266706763]
The ski out was a predictably icy luge track, but for some reason I always enjoy those so for me it was a good ski from top to bottom.
Something's wrong with you.
;)
Nice work on the day off :)
a few pics.... andy and becky finding decent snow up high and some of the chunkier debris bits lower on the face...
Three of us headed up the same route today, Feb 20, also hoping to find corn. Instead, we found conditions which were essentially identical to everything you describe for yesterday, including the same patch of powder and cupful of corn. Only change today might be that the breakable crust up high is slightly less breakable and mostly supportive on skis.
Kudos for writing such an accurate TR, Becky! It's not that easy to be objective and accurate, many others fail. Too bad we didn't have your report beforehand, else we might have tried a different objective. Not that Red was bad, it was still a fun day, but perhaps a bit disappointing compared to expectations.
And thanks to your group for putting in the nice (albeit occasionally sketchy) skin track up to 5500 ft, and postholes to the summit, all of which we followed gratefully.
Kudos for writing such an accurate TR, Becky! It's not that easy to be objective and accurate, many others fail. Too bad we didn't have your report beforehand, else we might have tried a different objective. Not that Red was bad, it was still a fun day, but perhaps a bit disappointing compared to expectations.
And thanks to your group for putting in the nice (albeit occasionally sketchy) skin track up to 5500 ft, and postholes to the summit, all of which we followed gratefully.
Nice work you guys. Looks like a beautiful day. Can't believe it's spring already!
author=Amar Andalkar link=topic=15694.msg65554#msg65554 date=1266725769]
Three of us headed up the same route today, Feb 20, also hoping to find corn. Instead, we found conditions which were essentially identical to everything you describe for yesterday, including the same patch of powder and cupful of corn. Only change today might be that the breakable crust up high is slightly less breakable and mostly supportive on skis.
Same deal Saturday (2/20) over on Kendall Peak. Snow in the avy track and up was mostly supportable and only the top bit of snow softened during the day. Snow in the trees was horrific and icy.
Amar, Dave Brown and I were up there Saturday enjoying the same conditions. Here is a photo taken at sunset on Saturday from a fellow Alpental patroller of mine from the top of Chair one.
Lisa and Amar,
I think we may have skied down as you were coming up? Were you the group that left a barking dog tied up while you summited? We heard him as we skinned up for a second run across the valley
Beautiful day indeed but not quite the corn harvest we were also expecting
I think we may have skied down as you were coming up? Were you the group that left a barking dog tied up while you summited? We heard him as we skinned up for a second run across the valley
Beautiful day indeed but not quite the corn harvest we were also expecting
Hi Juan,
That was Lander, Dave's dog who was sketched on the steeper slope that we booted, so he tied him up to keep him from being scared and possibly slipping on the upper slope. Lander is still a pup and has a little separation anxiety as most pups do.
You must have been the guys who skied the sub summit of Lundin. That looked good, we thought about doing both but I had to be at work at Alpy by 4:00. Nice work skiing both slopes!
That was Lander, Dave's dog who was sketched on the steeper slope that we booted, so he tied him up to keep him from being scared and possibly slipping on the upper slope. Lander is still a pup and has a little separation anxiety as most pups do.
You must have been the guys who skied the sub summit of Lundin. That looked good, we thought about doing both but I had to be at work at Alpy by 4:00. Nice work skiing both slopes!
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