McClellan Butte, NE Couloir, April 8
4/15/12
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2075
0
Another fun trip at McClellan. Skied the lower half of the couloir. Having been lucky enough to make it to the top of Cannon Couloir a couple weeks ago, at the point where I dropped in on McClellan, I would describe it more like a fairly wide gully. Some day I'd like to get near the top where it looks a lot more intense. During the climb I ran out of time at an elevation of about 4300'. I tried to pick a somewhat representative location for a snow pit, NE aspect. I found two relatively harder layers at depths of 1 and 2 feet down. I did a rutschblock test and got shear failure on the upper layer a foot down after several hard jumps (R6?). I could not get the deeper layer to slide.
I'm just starting to dig more pits so please don't take my results too seriously.
After the good pit results, a yellow NWAC forecast, existing recent avy debris and skier compaction I still thought the run looked like death on a stick as far a slides go so I decided to do one last test by skiing down a little in the trees to the east. Everything felt solid after hard turns on some test slopes so I finally entered the couloir about half way down. A few good turns in places but more thrilling than fun. Snow was not great. Better turns farther down towards the road where the snow was more consistent.
Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111955726492601080503/McClellan_040812?authkey=Gv1sRgCIzA-Puhgbjf7wE#
Video (short and simple):
http://youtu.be/7AYWKWWHI50
Cheers.
I'm just starting to dig more pits so please don't take my results too seriously.
After the good pit results, a yellow NWAC forecast, existing recent avy debris and skier compaction I still thought the run looked like death on a stick as far a slides go so I decided to do one last test by skiing down a little in the trees to the east. Everything felt solid after hard turns on some test slopes so I finally entered the couloir about half way down. A few good turns in places but more thrilling than fun. Snow was not great. Better turns farther down towards the road where the snow was more consistent.
Pictures:
https://picasaweb.google.com/111955726492601080503/McClellan_040812?authkey=Gv1sRgCIzA-Puhgbjf7wE#
Video (short and simple):
http://youtu.be/7AYWKWWHI50
Cheers.
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