Home > Trip Reports > April 23, 2005, Chinook Pass

April 23, 2005, Chinook Pass

4/23/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
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Posted by Robie on 4/24/05 12:04am
Cayuse pass is open. We hiked up the cleared road to  ski up at Chinook pass. Conditons were as promised by AVY and road reports.
Deep mashed potatoes! The 7 of us skied mostly west facing runs.We didn't set off any wet slides which probaly reflected our choice of gentler slopes. Saw a party of two on False summit. Ended the day by skiing out the Gulley to the first hairpin.The gulley was not particularly good or safe given the low coverage.We normally ski this route in good corn but this is a terrain trap with the heavy wet snow.  Road cut up at pass varied varied 6-8'. It looks to be a short season up there.Raining as we left.
Thanks for the report Robie-
My presumtion was that the snow was deep goo. Hopefully we can get a series of freezes to set the consolidation in motion before it melts away!
Joe

So I'm a bit new to spring skiing and the PNW (3rd summer,) and I've got a question.  If we get the sunny and warm weather predicted for this week, will that be good for the consolidation of this snowpack, and turn chinook pass to better corn skiing?

if it's clear at night, and a bit cooler, that should do the trick.

Five of us were there on Sat and found lots of mush, but quite skiable. South face of Naches was decent. We did a run o east side bowl where we found lots of sluffing on steeper rollovers, but nothing serious. 35+ slopes were showing lots of natural activity. Climbed back up for a second run down south face as it began to spit rain, then skied out to the car. We parked down from hwy junction for easey access to snow and a continuous skin track to top of false summit of Naches.

hope you don't mind if I take the one photo allotment for this thread.


I've got to say no. Without the refreeze part of the cycle the snow from March and April is likely to wash away as meltwater and sloughs. Usually this process would begin with the first sunny warm days and cold nights of late winter/early spring. We didn't have the snow back then and now that we've got the snow, it's not cold enough at night. This year's corn harvest looks to be mighty low at least at lower elevations where the snowpack we got largely melted out by Feb.

Nice picture, I'm glad you put it up. South facing was better eh? We were a little leary of it but ended up skiing slopes just as steep.
I agree ,Cold clear nights where the snow refreezes is what we need for corn. It just won't happen without it. Idealy one should be able to boot up or even need crampons in the morning,Get on top,have a nice snack/lunch and then ski down on a sun warmed cream. linger to long and the cream turns to deep mush.in a normal season Corn conditions can last till Sept.Hence "turns all year " all bets are off this year!

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april-23-2005-chinook-pass
Robie
2005-04-24 07:04:38