Snoqualmie Pass 03.17.13
3/17/13
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2462
1
ran into Silas and crew with TNT drinking green beer by the side of the road and I was urged to post a TR so here it is - -
ye olde Snoqualmie Pass report - -
fun deep day, much like Sunday two weeks ago, powder over mush, but even deeper.
thanks to Alpenho and Co--(first in the parking lot and last to go)--for breaking trail up to the Snow Lake divide, where we diverged and set a track up towards Chair. Snow was thick! But fluffy. for the most part -
here's my friendly partner dropping slabs on me...
kidding ;) We were well spaced. and the slabs quickly disintegrated to sluff.
(Eastern facing ridge-top leeward pocket on lower col going up to north Chair plateau)
Plateau was a total ski by braille, at one point I hit a completely unforeseen drift and fell over sideways and had the distinct sensation that everything was still moving forward even though the ground was practically flat... (this was way before the green beer...) Snow was amazing though, even if vision wasn't. Soon enough the Snow Lake chute lent some contrast and skied great!
this picture doesn't do justice to how deep the snow was being as it's between turns, but it has some nice Rorschach features in the cliffs...
Some debris at the bottom, some old some fresh, like this 1K lb chunk of ice on the left.
We picked up the skin track across Snow Lake. Totally enjoyed that flat kick and glide rhythm across the lake. Followed a track (Alpenho and Co) up to the W side of the Roosevelt-Wright ridge for another run down.
Here's a better shot of Rob, ripping -
From there we headed up a skin track heading up towards Wright courtesy of Scott and crew who were just coming down. At Gem Lake it got windy and the top of Wright was positively howling, the summit consisting of wind scoured ice. This stymied our exploratory intentions, and we dropped directly down to Gem Lake with face shots galore!
known quantity?
Did another quick skin to the high point of the Roosevelt-Wright ridge for a great fall line ski back down to Snow Lake.
Great to meet and see everyone! thanks for the beers!
ye olde Snoqualmie Pass report - -
fun deep day, much like Sunday two weeks ago, powder over mush, but even deeper.
thanks to Alpenho and Co--(first in the parking lot and last to go)--for breaking trail up to the Snow Lake divide, where we diverged and set a track up towards Chair. Snow was thick! But fluffy. for the most part -
here's my friendly partner dropping slabs on me...
kidding ;) We were well spaced. and the slabs quickly disintegrated to sluff.
(Eastern facing ridge-top leeward pocket on lower col going up to north Chair plateau)
Plateau was a total ski by braille, at one point I hit a completely unforeseen drift and fell over sideways and had the distinct sensation that everything was still moving forward even though the ground was practically flat... (this was way before the green beer...) Snow was amazing though, even if vision wasn't. Soon enough the Snow Lake chute lent some contrast and skied great!
this picture doesn't do justice to how deep the snow was being as it's between turns, but it has some nice Rorschach features in the cliffs...
Some debris at the bottom, some old some fresh, like this 1K lb chunk of ice on the left.
We picked up the skin track across Snow Lake. Totally enjoyed that flat kick and glide rhythm across the lake. Followed a track (Alpenho and Co) up to the W side of the Roosevelt-Wright ridge for another run down.
Here's a better shot of Rob, ripping -
From there we headed up a skin track heading up towards Wright courtesy of Scott and crew who were just coming down. At Gem Lake it got windy and the top of Wright was positively howling, the summit consisting of wind scoured ice. This stymied our exploratory intentions, and we dropped directly down to Gem Lake with face shots galore!
known quantity?
Did another quick skin to the high point of the Roosevelt-Wright ridge for a great fall line ski back down to Snow Lake.
Great to meet and see everyone! thanks for the beers!
Great to meet you guys, was a superb day... We did also encounter some temporal-spacial variegation in snowpack stability on our outing, notably ripped a similar sized slab (as in your photo) on a S-facing roll-over where the wind was pouring out of Gem Lake and noticed some smaller crowns on our last descent down to Snow Lk. In contrast to what seemed pretty bomber stability the rest of the day in different locales...
funny that:
I took the same photo from the same spot with the same thought going through my head...
funny that:
known quantity?
I took the same photo from the same spot with the same thought going through my head...
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