April 7, 2010, Crystal backcountry
4/7/10
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2320
1
Gray skies, good visibility, and a breeze greeted us at 9AM. We found a foot of powder over increasingly dense snow in the trees on the way up to 6000'. Cornices have grown considerably the past two weeks.
As we skied up the weather got more clear and less windy (and much warmer tho we did not notice until we began skiing down.) At our high point around midday, we saw gray clouds quickly arriving with new precipitation. Above 6000' there was 0-2" medium density powder on a firm crust on SW to SE aspects and increasingly dense powder on NE aspects. All our skiing was smooth with no wind crust, occasionally the denser snow 8-12" below the surface tried to grab our skis.
No ski pole photos since they could be probed deeper than their length. :)
At 3PM it was snowing hard above 5000' and raining below.
As we skied up the weather got more clear and less windy (and much warmer tho we did not notice until we began skiing down.) At our high point around midday, we saw gray clouds quickly arriving with new precipitation. Above 6000' there was 0-2" medium density powder on a firm crust on SW to SE aspects and increasingly dense powder on NE aspects. All our skiing was smooth with no wind crust, occasionally the denser snow 8-12" below the surface tried to grab our skis.
No ski pole photos since they could be probed deeper than their length. :)
At 3PM it was snowing hard above 5000' and raining below.
Nice Silas! I must have done something wrong in a former life, that I haven't been able to ski with you this year.
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