May 7, 2005, Chinook Pass
5/7/05
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3224
4
in spite of the lousy forecast, Brenda and I decided to try for an overnighter at Chinook Pass. We arrived fairly early and quickly headed out the ridge east of Naches Pk to the saddle just below pk 6567. We set up camp and sat around waiting for the fog to clear off the top of the peak. The sun came out around noon and off we went. Booted up the ridge fairly easy - mush was not as deep as the week before. At the summit of 6567 we were a bit concerned about surface sluffs so I took a ski cut to see what would happen. Surface slid easily and cleared the slope out nicely. We took it easy the first time down, not wanting to get much ahead of the slow sliding snow. We booted up the tree line at the far lookers left of the bowl for 2 more runs. A party of five arrived to help with the sluff control and our 3rd run was on a nice smooth cleared surface. Back at camp we lounged around an awesome fire until late in the evening. Sky cleared and we actually had stars. Next morning was a different story. Woke to spitting rain, fog and crusty snow. We quickly packed and headed for the car.
here's Brenda below 6567 and the debris from our skiing.
here's Brenda below 6567 and the debris from our skiing.
Hey thanks for clearing out the junk! Hmm ,that would be one nice spot to have a camp fire. I never think of it because we always ski inside the Nat Park. Did you happen to measure the snowpack?
there's still lots of snow around Chinook Pass but it's going fast. East bowl of Naches is fine, South face looked patchy. 6567 northeast and northwest sides are good, Dewey Lake side is about gone. I don't think you can find continuous snow from the ridge down to Dewey. We had continuous snow out to 6567, but we had to take the north side around the last knob to the saddle - the week before we were able to ski the Dewey side, but that's gone. We had dry ground and rocks for sitting around camp and for our fire. Set the megamid up in the snow for a flatter surface. The PCT along the hwy up to Sheep Lake looks to be completely clear up to the basin. Melt out around Chinook looks to be about 4 weeks earlier than last year - which I thought was a low snow year. But I'm not complaining. :)
Informative report, thank you very much! I was there a few days before your outing and am considering it for tomorrow. The slide pic is a good reminder of the only thing I'm worried about; those sloppy wet slides. Overnight temps haven't been low enough for a good freeze have they? If anyone has observed otherwise, when was the last good freeze? If I get too paranoid Muir might have to be the choice, but more pitch is tempting. Be safe people! ;)
those slides didn't worry me too much. They were very slow moving and shallow - I skied through one of them just for fun. There wasn't a lot of snow for them to pick up and a lot of area to spread out below. There are lines on Naches east bowl that are less steep if slides are a concern.
I'm not sure how cold it got this week up there, but I'll bet it's firmer snow than last weekend. I'm thinking of heading up there to milk one more weekend. With the chance of poor weather it's really the only area with easy snow access that I know well enough to navigate in the fog.
I'm not sure how cold it got this week up there, but I'll bet it's firmer snow than last weekend. I'm thinking of heading up there to milk one more weekend. With the chance of poor weather it's really the only area with easy snow access that I know well enough to navigate in the fog.
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