Dec 15 th Mazama Ridge sluff skiing
12/15/12
WA Cascades East Slopes North
3028
3
Road opened around 830 !
6 Tacoma mounties Skied down east facing directly from
Paradise parking lot in 12 -14" med density powder. No issues .Crossed Paradise river by butt checking into creek and crossing on 1' base in creek bottom .
Then we climbed Mazama West facing in Indian Rock area .
Second run on open 35 -40* slopes starting at 5400 ' in 12 -14 " produced skier triggered point releases which turned into slope cleaning slides . Loose snow slid on slippery layer for 350 ' 30' wide and left a 2 ' deep pile on road. We had one skier who was swept along for a short distance . We did a double check and got the same results ! No naturals.
I would expect it to get worse with forcasted precip.
If road opens on Sunday advise stick to moderate angle slopes.
Snowing as we left and road was pretty good.
6 Tacoma mounties Skied down east facing directly from
Paradise parking lot in 12 -14" med density powder. No issues .Crossed Paradise river by butt checking into creek and crossing on 1' base in creek bottom .
Then we climbed Mazama West facing in Indian Rock area .
Second run on open 35 -40* slopes starting at 5400 ' in 12 -14 " produced skier triggered point releases which turned into slope cleaning slides . Loose snow slid on slippery layer for 350 ' 30' wide and left a 2 ' deep pile on road. We had one skier who was swept along for a short distance . We did a double check and got the same results ! No naturals.
I would expect it to get worse with forcasted precip.
If road opens on Sunday advise stick to moderate angle slopes.
Snowing as we left and road was pretty good.
Goods news no one was injured! You might consider also posting your event/observations on the new NWAC snowpack info exchange site for the benefit of others who may not read this TR:
NWAC Snow Info Site
NWAC Snow Info Site
I was up on Mazama the day before, pretty stable while breaking trail up but started to get some cracks & slabs skiing down. Big snow coming now.
Excellent. Thanks for sharing.
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