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Mission Ridge, April, 2, 2005

4/15/05
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by aaron_wright on 4/5/05 5:24am
I skied at Mission again saturday, met TAY poster wickstad and his wife. Quite a  bit of snow in the upper basin, adequate coverage all the way to the lot. They groomed Mimi and Tillicum to the summit in preparation for laying pipe for expanded snow making. Talked to a patroller and they had done some contol work on most of the mountain, obvious craters and releases on the usual steep spots. Observed what appeared to be some natural slab releases from a distance with crowns of less than a foot, these were on significantly steeper, lee slopes than I skied. Snow from wednesday setting up and will make a good base for some corn in a week or so. I was looking at monday's NWAC avalanche forecast and saw the report of some 1-3' slab releases by ski cut and on approach over a rotten crust presumably from March. I stayed on slopes of 30 degrees or less and only found one spot on a steep roll over near the top of chair 2 with a significant whoomp and slight crack propagation. I was wondering if the reported releases were from Mission patrol or someone else? There were alot of people up there on saturday. Any info would be appreciated as to location and size. Aaron
Hey Aaron.

We talked to ski patrol on Sunday.  He was the one who phoned the Avalanche Center.  I'm still not all too familiar with the names of the runs up there.  It was my impression that all control work was inbounds.  It might have been no-name chute(?) that ran to the ground by just walking up to it.  A couple of skiers were heading up to microwave bowl but I suspect they may have changed their plans.  

Eric.

Thanks, Eric. That's what I was thinking after my conversation with patrol. I think I'll head up there this morning. If you get over this way again for skiing give me a call- 667-1985. I'll probably ski this weekend if we get some new snow. Saturday looks best, Ridge to River on Sunday and that place will be a zoo. They will close Suilchuck Rd. for a while for the road bike portion too. Have a great week. Aaron

I happened upon the mission ridge cam on 3/30, and saw some guy ripping it up:

Thought it was cool, so I saved it.

Anyone you know?  Was it you?  :)

Cool.

My guess is a ski patroller.  

The riming indicates treasures ahead.

That picture captured on the web cam got me a little interested, I thought it was me but on further investigation I realized I was not up there on the 30th.
I was up there on the Mar 31 and I recall meeting another skier right about where that picture was taken and he said a couple of his friends had been up there yesterday (the 30th) and put down the tracks we were observing.
Anyway, Thurs. Mar 31 was quite a surprise, I was totally blown away with how good the conditions were.
So I had to go back on Fri. Fri the snow had been blown around a little more and showed a wind crust and some evidence of a slab but it was still really fun.
I went up again on Mon April 4. This time I brought my fat skis. That in combination with the fact that the snow had consolidated and recieved and inch or two of fresh made it the best day yet. All the tracks from the previous few days had been filled in and I would describe it as untracked, high density, consistant snow.
Although I know there is that rain crust 12-18 inches down it seems to not be too sensitive. A patroller told me that on fri they threw 30 lbs of explosives on Nertz and nothing moved. So I put a couple of tracks down nertz, I wish I had a picture, it was wonderful.

Last wednesday, March 30 was epic. I left the lot around 0630 and did a run under 4 and another to above chair 3. Notice the time on the video capture 1900. The lights are on in town. I don't know who is in the picture. I was the first person up that morning but talked to several others who skied later that day and thursday. I just got back from the Ridge today, I skinned to the top of chair 3 via Castle and down to midway. Pretty good turns first run. I skinned from midway to the top and the run down was just okay. Snow was getting very warm and the sun had come out. They are hard at work installing the pipe for the expanded snow making.

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mission-ridge-april-2-2005
aaron_wright
2005-04-05 12:24:28