April 22, Commonwealth, Lundin Peak

Aiming to capitalize on the good weather  Nathan and I headed up to Snoqualmie pass to explore the Commonwealth basin. We are both relatively new to the area so we set the goal of exploring the basin and seeing if we could find something safe to ski. Skis and skins went on at the road. We followed ski and snowshoe tracks loosely and stayed far right of the creek, skirting around the western side of Kendall. Lots of recent wet slide activity on most slopes. We arrived at the base of Red Mountain and began a traverse up towards the western slope. Recent slide debris, warm temps, and heavy wet snow deterred us from continuing up Red, so we decided to cautiously ski down to the small lake between Red Mountain and Lundin Peak. We decided to ascend and ski the eastern aspect of Lundin Peak. A quick skin and we arrived at the top of the sub-peak. A cautious descent closely followed our uphill track. As we neared the base of Lundin we set in motion a couple small and slow wet slush slides. Heavy wet snow and momentum caused these slides to carry surprisingly far. We observed minimal active pinwheeling and no natural slide activity today. However lots of recent activity and warm temperatures as we turn the corner to true consolidation of the snowpack. Heavy wet snow makes for interesting skiing! Beautiful weather, but in regard to snow quality it is definitely volcano season... Bring on the corn!