March 4, 2012; Kendall Ridge shmoo/avy survey
3/15/12
WA Snoqualmie Pass
7360
12
Chris, Mica and I took the dogs up to Kendall today, to explore the south ridge that overlooks Gold Creek and get some views. We parked at the Stump lot and found an easy creek crossing, gaining the logging road from Gold Creek in a few hundred feet. It was clear by the time we got there that the snow had been well soaked on Saturday and it looked like that was going to be the story all the way up, so we settled in for a leisurely day and cruised up the old snowshoe track toward Kendall Peak Lakes.
Mica headed to the sun
We eventually gained the ridge proper and continued to work our way up. The upper slopes of the south couloir/chute that's so visible from the highway were coming into view, so we decided to head up that way for some recon, after a short lunch break.
Lunch break...
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http://www.pantengliopolis.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/kendallridge/dscn0546_1.jpg" />
For puppies too
As we looked down into Gold Creek we noticed that there was a huge pile of avy debris at the bottom of the chute, so we were hoping to get a look at the crown. I'd been thinking on the way up that it might be either primed to go, or dumped already. When we got over to the upper slopes it was clear that the entire chute had ripped out, big. There's still some hangfire on the skier's left side and just below the ridge, but the concave bowl that makes up most of the upper right had released a slab that was easily 6+ feet at the crown. It's got be 2500 feet from there to the valley floor.
We guessed it was probably the same weak layer that caused the Tunnel Creek and Alpental accidents, given the size of the crown. There was some evidence that it was triggered by a surface slide that may have stepped down, but we weren't willing to go out far enough to see for sure with all that snow still hanging out up there. Very impressive and well worth the trip up just for that.
Crappy picture of the crown, from a couple hundred feet below
When the tree bombs started to rain from the sky, we decided we'd have enough and scooted back over to our lunch spot. From there we had a few hundred feet of decent, shmootastic turns, then quickly hacked and whacked our way back to the car.
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http://www.pantengliopolis.com/blog/wp-content/gallery/kendallridge/dscn0561_0.jpg" />
Surfing the shmoo
Mica headed to the sun
We eventually gained the ridge proper and continued to work our way up. The upper slopes of the south couloir/chute that's so visible from the highway were coming into view, so we decided to head up that way for some recon, after a short lunch break.
Lunch break...
For puppies too
As we looked down into Gold Creek we noticed that there was a huge pile of avy debris at the bottom of the chute, so we were hoping to get a look at the crown. I'd been thinking on the way up that it might be either primed to go, or dumped already. When we got over to the upper slopes it was clear that the entire chute had ripped out, big. There's still some hangfire on the skier's left side and just below the ridge, but the concave bowl that makes up most of the upper right had released a slab that was easily 6+ feet at the crown. It's got be 2500 feet from there to the valley floor.
We guessed it was probably the same weak layer that caused the Tunnel Creek and Alpental accidents, given the size of the crown. There was some evidence that it was triggered by a surface slide that may have stepped down, but we weren't willing to go out far enough to see for sure with all that snow still hanging out up there. Very impressive and well worth the trip up just for that.
Crappy picture of the crown, from a couple hundred feet below
When the tree bombs started to rain from the sky, we decided we'd have enough and scooted back over to our lunch spot. From there we had a few hundred feet of decent, shmootastic turns, then quickly hacked and whacked our way back to the car.
Surfing the shmoo
Don't worry, the schmoo is not here for long!
From the top of Alpental today, which had wonderful views, there were lots of slides visible on Snoqualmie (wonder if anyone set one off??), Red, Lundin and of course all over Denny itself above Edelweiss bowl and below the Alpental cliffs. So much new snow last week, bit of rain and a ton of sun today a good combo for such action. Beautiful up there though.
From the top of Alpental today, which had wonderful views, there were lots of slides visible on Snoqualmie (wonder if anyone set one off??), Red, Lundin and of course all over Denny itself above Edelweiss bowl and below the Alpental cliffs. So much new snow last week, bit of rain and a ton of sun today a good combo for such action. Beautiful up there though.
Rock face over at Alpental went again today too.
Makin' PNW lemonade. I think schmootastic should have entered our lexicon a long time ago.
We could see the this crown from I90 on our drive back from the east side this evening, we were trying to guess how big it was, 6', wow!
Yeah, it was huge -- really impressive and, at the same time, made me not want to get any closer to the edge of the path to get a closer look, in case the hangfire went as the day heated up. We were guessing you could see it from I90.
Thanks Marcus! That big couloir has always intrigued, always wondered if it gets skied in times of an appropriate safe window. Looks pretty deeply "v trenched" inplaces, did it look to have decent skiable slope on the edges when you were looking down, or was it hard to see without exposing yourself. Thanks again for going up to scout it for all of us who never made the effort.
John
John
I was checking that crown out from our bump shack on top of Hyak yesterday. I think you are right about a point release as the trigger because we could see one or two surface sloughs above it.
Impressive!
Impressive!
author=John Morrow link=topic=23999.msg101555#msg101555 date=1330956420]
Thanks Marcus! That big couloir has always intrigued, always wondered if it gets skied in times of an appropriate safe window. Looks pretty deeply "v trenched" inplaces, did it look to have decent skiable slope on the edges when you were looking down, or was it hard to see without exposing yourself. Thanks again for going up to scout it for all of us who never made the effort.
John
Hey John, it definitely gets ridden.The trick is to hit it when the gully isn't choked with debris or about to be choked with debris. The shoulders have good riding if the gully is bumpy. Fun wall hits. FWIW I've heard it called Gold rush.
Thanks for the info Hills -- I knew it got skied with some regularity. How could it not, as prominent as it is... But yeah, John, I wasn't willing to go out far enough to get a good look down the chute with all that snow hanging out. Even the broad, protected flat bench that we were standing on had a big settlement fracture from when it ripped out. The flanks down by that spot were still 3-4' tall.
Tim got some nice pics of the slide
http://thesnowtroopers.com/2012/snoqualmie-pass-wa-kendall-peaks-avalanches-342012/
http://thesnowtroopers.com/2012/snoqualmie-pass-wa-kendall-peaks-avalanches-342012/
Great shots Tim... yeah, we popped out of the trees on the bench to the looker's left of the slide, maybe 200 feet below the crown.
Marcus, it's a fun ski. Hopefully you'll try again in better conditions.
Here's a video of when Tim and I skied this area a couple of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBf7oUgzDQ
Here's a video of when Tim and I skied this area a couple of years ago.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=edBf7oUgzDQ
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