November 16, 2013, Chinook Pass, North

  For the second weekend in a row we decided to see if Chinook Pass would offer some good early season turns for us.  We left Ellensburg with a crew of four people and snow dog around 8:30 only to find that 82 over Manastash was closed, so through the Yakima River Canyon it would be. 
  We finally arrived at the parking lot at 11:00 and headed North out of the parking lot to the prominent saddle. Although wind was minimal while we were up there yesterday the snow was very wind effected and variable in places. However, great skiing was found in many places around the North side of the pass. 
  Hand shears indicated a potential weak layer about 12cm down on lee slopes.  However, this weak layer was unresponsive to ski cuts and we saw no other signs of instability all day.  Best turns were on North slopes slightly wind protected.  However, the South side of the saddle also had fun turns you just had to avoid the brush sticking through the shallow snowpack.  Overall a really fun day and it will just get better until the inevitable closing of the pass for the winter.