February 15, 2011, Mazama Ridge
2/15/11
WA Cascades East Slopes North
1697
0
Decided to try out Paradise on Tuesday as they had 9" of new on Monday, but with the winds I figured the best plan would be to stay down in the paradise valley and get as many laps in as possible. Brought my friend Todd out for his second time touring (he did a dawn patrol lap at Hyak friday morning with me before work, so this was his first real day out).
We got a late start, planning for a gate opening around 10am. Ended up nailing it right on the head, had enough time to stop and use the facilities, came back out to see the gate just opening.
At the paradise lot we were the 4th car. One other splitboarder with his gf on snow shoes, another car of snow shoers, and some snowboarders who I think bootpacked altavista.
We broke the trail over to paradise valley and went up to mazama ridge where we ate lunch. Todd's first ski cut released 4-5" of windpack at the very top of our run (marked as A), bellow this point the snow was stable, heavy, and a bit slow. We followed the skin track there and then decided to go over to the bowls at the north end of the paradise valley (not sure of the offical name).
Going up near the stream patch on the south facing area we found fairly deep wind deposited snow that really suprised me in stability. Despite my most angry stomping I couldn't get even the slightest movement out of it. Area marked B.
Todd dropped in to the upper portion here and found good snow conditions (picture attached).
I decided to drop into the bowl further down through some tighter trees and into a steeper chute. I expected to find similar snow conditions to what we had in area B and where Todd skied down, but I still planned a line to avoid anything should it start to go. I droped in straight and made a few long fast turns (marked as point C). I looked back to check the snow and saw some movement and immediately cut left well away from the slide path. I stopped to see that my first turn had released a 6-8" crown, which slid down my first few tracks. I'm glad that I didn't get overly confident in the snowpack after the stability we found on the tour up.
We got back up to the lot around 5:35 and were the last car in the lot. Great day overall
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=46.79132,-121.72255&z=16&t=S&marker0=46.78693%2C-121.72277%2C0.9%20km%20SW%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA&marker1=46.79539%2C-121.72594%2C0.8%20km%20WxNW%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA&marker2=46.79374%2C-121.72798%2C0.9%20km%20W%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA
We got a late start, planning for a gate opening around 10am. Ended up nailing it right on the head, had enough time to stop and use the facilities, came back out to see the gate just opening.
At the paradise lot we were the 4th car. One other splitboarder with his gf on snow shoes, another car of snow shoers, and some snowboarders who I think bootpacked altavista.
We broke the trail over to paradise valley and went up to mazama ridge where we ate lunch. Todd's first ski cut released 4-5" of windpack at the very top of our run (marked as A), bellow this point the snow was stable, heavy, and a bit slow. We followed the skin track there and then decided to go over to the bowls at the north end of the paradise valley (not sure of the offical name).
Going up near the stream patch on the south facing area we found fairly deep wind deposited snow that really suprised me in stability. Despite my most angry stomping I couldn't get even the slightest movement out of it. Area marked B.
Todd dropped in to the upper portion here and found good snow conditions (picture attached).
I decided to drop into the bowl further down through some tighter trees and into a steeper chute. I expected to find similar snow conditions to what we had in area B and where Todd skied down, but I still planned a line to avoid anything should it start to go. I droped in straight and made a few long fast turns (marked as point C). I looked back to check the snow and saw some movement and immediately cut left well away from the slide path. I stopped to see that my first turn had released a 6-8" crown, which slid down my first few tracks. I'm glad that I didn't get overly confident in the snowpack after the stability we found on the tour up.
We got back up to the lot around 5:35 and were the last car in the lot. Great day overall
http://mapper.acme.com/?ll=46.79132,-121.72255&z=16&t=S&marker0=46.78693%2C-121.72277%2C0.9%20km%20SW%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA&marker1=46.79539%2C-121.72594%2C0.8%20km%20WxNW%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA&marker2=46.79374%2C-121.72798%2C0.9%20km%20W%20of%20Sluiskin%20Falls%20WA
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