Home > Trip Reports > February 25, 2014, Blewett Pass

February 25, 2014, Blewett Pass

2/25/14
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
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Posted by TAndrewSki on 2/25/14 2:54am
Went up to Diamond Head area (Outback) for some dawn patrol. Got to the trail head at 6am, did a few laps, then back to the car by 930.

We were greeted with 6-8in of great low density powder, and excellent stability. We dug a pit down to the bed rock (~150cm), and found the prominent layer from before the storm cycle about 100cm down. After several stability tests we were unable to get it to react after over 10 solid swings from the shoulder.

All in all, fantastic skiing.
Interesting. Makes me wonder where the east-west line is for the presence of brutal raincrust, gloppage and other ill effects of the Monday night warmup. Clearly Blewett was far enough. But anything closer (for the cityfolk)? For example wonder if Arrowhead escaped, or Salmon La Sac.

author=wolfs link=topic=30910.msg129454#msg129454 date=1393372934]
Interesting. Makes me wonder where the east-west line is for the presence of brutal raincrust, gloppage and other ill effects of the Monday night warmup. Clearly Blewett was far enough. But anything closer (for the cityfolk)? For example wonder if Arrowhead escaped, or Salmon La Sac.


The million dollar question!

author=TAndrewSki link=topic=30910.msg129419#msg129419 date=1393354447]
All in all, fantastic skiing.

Agreed.  The dog and I climbed up the N shoulder of Diamond Head today to just below the bowl under the summit plateau.  Skied down the NE flank through the woods to the XC-15 trail aka the Jelstrup/Lilleby.  Great snow with no signs of instability.

Blewett was most excellent today. The complete and total lack of wind was the best part! I skied down the E aspect of Diamond Head and did a bunch of exploring of all the XC trails which I had always wanted to do. What a cool network of trails in there. It makes me want to get some sort of XC setup so I don't have to do that on heavier gear.

I knew some other folks were around because a few of the trails I was on had some recent ski tracks. I never did cross paths with any of y'all though.

Of interesting note and re: a thread a week or two ago about blewett: that area really does illustrate wind deposition well. Higher up the snowpack is significant, easily 5'+ and deeper in places. However on that low angle south shoulder of Diamond Head I was skinning up no more than 4" of snow in parts with grass sticking out. :)

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2014-02-25 10:54:07