Feb 15 Rock Mtn

Ever since hiking Rock Mtn in the summer a couple years ago, I have been looking to ski it. The three of us hit the trailhead and soon found some friendly folks not far from the cars who had done the route before and had some good beta. Thanks! The long bootpack up the initial steep was tiring but rewarding.

After gaining the summit of rock we skid 2 laps on the north facing side, and found 5 to 6 inches of really light powder over a crust which was soft and very fast! Had fun skiing the steep chutes at the top and making huge turns in the mellow open areas bellow.

Snowpack was quite stable north facing with only some very light sloughing from soft top layer. West face which we did not ski but did a little skinning on the return the the summit was a bit wind effected. S face above Rock lake had some rather large cornices over it with some evidence that some cornices may have come loose during the last warming period.

The ski descent to the car was a challenging refrozen crud. Coverage is good most of the way but a little thin at the bottom.

All told a great day to be out in the Cascades!