March 23, 2011, Chair Peak backside
3/23/11
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2633
2
Out with five skiers and one dog today. We skinned up the trail slackcountry skiers use to return to Alpental, nothing but hard crust and ice at 8:30am. We had easy skinning and blue skies up to the basin below Chair. The usual winds battered us for the kick turns up the col (first on the right), and after quickly removing skins we dropped down skiers right from the col, hoping for a safe ski to Snow Lake.
Our descent began with a short steep section followed by a long, chill runout. As NWAC advised, the NE (leeward) side of the ridge had accumulated a wind slab, and the first of our party triggered a ~5" deep and 10' wide slab and took a 50' ride. He was unshaken and not terribly surprised to have taken a low-key ride, but we stayed the hell away from terrain traps thereafter.
Our route cliffed out quickly after some powdery (less than boot-deep) and low-angle turns, and we skinned back to the main entrance to the slope about Snow Lake (the other side of the 2 higher gaps in the ridge below Chair). We took a fast lap over shallow powder down to the cliffband above Snow Lake, and skinned back up to the upper entrance.
Some fast skiing on a very thin crust over powder and corn took us back down to Source Lake. The ski out to Alpental was heinous as usual.
Good turns were had by all on moderate terrain; scary (avalanchy?) turns were had by one on a steep slope the lee side of a ridge. Very nice shallow powder on the NE slope, and crust thin enough to be enjoyable on the S slope.
Snowpack assessment:
Incredibly variable, but I'll do my best.
S/SW aspects: a very manageable breakable crust below a couple inches of powder. The upper snow occasionally looked slabby beneath our feet as we skinned up, and in places it skidded easily atop the crust, making for sporadically tricky skinning. By 2:30pm as thin clouds came in, the powder had grown wet and a very thin crust had formed above it, but it was still eminently skiable. Warming danger was not evident, but then we didn't see those slopes midday.
N/NE aspects: 4-8 inches of powder, presumably mainly wind deposited. Under that, a harder layer easily penetrated by ski poles, and below that more soft snow. No melt/freeze effect was evident at the elevations we skied (~4500'-6000'). The newer powder looked a little slabby, but we didn't kick off anything longer than a foot while skinning up, and it had yet to consolidate to the point that it looked apt to propagate. The underside of our mini-slabs was probably a Q2-level smoothness.
Lee sides of ridgetops: the wind was clearly strong enough to create some easily triggered wind slabs. Had we chosen a more exposed descent from the ridge our avy poodle's ride would have been much less fun. The size of the slide we set off was limited more by the terrain than by the snowpack.
Our descent began with a short steep section followed by a long, chill runout. As NWAC advised, the NE (leeward) side of the ridge had accumulated a wind slab, and the first of our party triggered a ~5" deep and 10' wide slab and took a 50' ride. He was unshaken and not terribly surprised to have taken a low-key ride, but we stayed the hell away from terrain traps thereafter.
Our route cliffed out quickly after some powdery (less than boot-deep) and low-angle turns, and we skinned back to the main entrance to the slope about Snow Lake (the other side of the 2 higher gaps in the ridge below Chair). We took a fast lap over shallow powder down to the cliffband above Snow Lake, and skinned back up to the upper entrance.
Some fast skiing on a very thin crust over powder and corn took us back down to Source Lake. The ski out to Alpental was heinous as usual.
Good turns were had by all on moderate terrain; scary (avalanchy?) turns were had by one on a steep slope the lee side of a ridge. Very nice shallow powder on the NE slope, and crust thin enough to be enjoyable on the S slope.
Snowpack assessment:
Incredibly variable, but I'll do my best.
S/SW aspects: a very manageable breakable crust below a couple inches of powder. The upper snow occasionally looked slabby beneath our feet as we skinned up, and in places it skidded easily atop the crust, making for sporadically tricky skinning. By 2:30pm as thin clouds came in, the powder had grown wet and a very thin crust had formed above it, but it was still eminently skiable. Warming danger was not evident, but then we didn't see those slopes midday.
N/NE aspects: 4-8 inches of powder, presumably mainly wind deposited. Under that, a harder layer easily penetrated by ski poles, and below that more soft snow. No melt/freeze effect was evident at the elevations we skied (~4500'-6000'). The newer powder looked a little slabby, but we didn't kick off anything longer than a foot while skinning up, and it had yet to consolidate to the point that it looked apt to propagate. The underside of our mini-slabs was probably a Q2-level smoothness.
Lee sides of ridgetops: the wind was clearly strong enough to create some easily triggered wind slabs. Had we chosen a more exposed descent from the ridge our avy poodle's ride would have been much less fun. The size of the slide we set off was limited more by the terrain than by the snowpack.
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