Feb 27 and 28 flowmotion and jim hill tour

I went up to Stevens pass this weekend for some great snow under a clear sky.

Sat. I got up to Stevens pass around 10 am just in time for the cloud cover to lift.  Spent the day running the groomers learning to telemark, and put them to the test when cornRIDE and Jake showed up and forced to to run off the groom and up the speed.  Decided to head to the Flowmotion around 7:30 where they put on a great show.

Sun. (where the fun really starts)  cornRIDE, Jake , and I meet up with the wife , Katie, at the nortic center for a tour up Jim Hill.  We started out toward Lanham lake around 10am on a gnarly ice trail put up by snowshoers.  From the lake we started with the switch backs to gain the ridge through forest.  We made it to the ridge around 1:30 and to the saddle under the peak around 2:00 (didn't reach the summit).  Even though the snow seemed stable we dug a pit for a quick lesson on snow safety.  There was about 5 inches of well consolidated snow on two ice layers about an inch apart from each other, good consolidation below that.  A column released under considerable pressure with no propagation.  The ride down was great (slightly heavy) powder, getting harder and harder until we hit the death ice in trees on the way out Henry creek.

Got back to the car around 6:00