March 19, 2011, Pineapple Pass

Originally aimed to ski over to Snow Lake but the NWAC forecast made us decide to stick with something more northerly in aspect.  Reached Source Lake quickly and discussed the options.  Plenty of natural releases to view and we here several large releases from the south facing slopes filled with fresh snow being baked in the sun.  Skinned up the gully to the bottom of Pineapple Pass.  Continued up to some of the knolls below where the upper traverse reaches the basin.  Skied down from there but a little too much to the right and we ended up in some seriously steep terrain.  At one point I think we came down what may be a waterfall.  Ah spice.  Made it down from there and out no problem.

Snow condition was incredible.  For March at Snoqualmie there was several inches of fresh fluff at the Alpental lodge and it was easily boot deep + up in the basin.  Spots that got warmed turned to cement really fast but once the clouds blew in around 11am that stopped.  On the north facing slopes we didn't see any stability problems.  Lots of trees shedding their loads though.  At Source Lake another party (who'd turned around) had dug a pit and we checked it out and did a further CT assay.  No results of note other than a sore hand.

Definitely gotta watch coming off those knolls more carefully.  That terrain was a challenge.  Luckily the snow was forgiving.

No pics from me.  Time to get a new camera.