Feb22-23 Tatoosh powder farming
2/22/14
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2724
2
Want to ski before 1000AM in the Tatoosh? Then just carry up your favorite tarp tent, some whiskey, and shiver yourself through the night... what gate opening?
We camped below Castle col (the bowl and the final climb to the col was very wind hammered - never ventured out there). A quick pit on Saturday showed some low quality releases within the storm snow, but the whole column came out cleanly when yarded on. That, together with the multitude of fresh pow lines in the trees, kept us yo-yoing smaller objectives all weekend. Seems like the idea of low probability high consequence is rather prevalent throughout the cascades still...
More pictures and writeup here
Approaching our high point below Castle col:
Powder runs down to the road on day1:
Had some fun jumping on some highly crossloaded rollovers. These were pretty much plum north, and were loaded up from the westerly winds.
Fun pow on some sheltered east facing bowls
Later in the weekend we kept notching up the slope angle slowly and were seeing some decent sluff, but nothing that wasn't manageable:
We camped below Castle col (the bowl and the final climb to the col was very wind hammered - never ventured out there). A quick pit on Saturday showed some low quality releases within the storm snow, but the whole column came out cleanly when yarded on. That, together with the multitude of fresh pow lines in the trees, kept us yo-yoing smaller objectives all weekend. Seems like the idea of low probability high consequence is rather prevalent throughout the cascades still...
More pictures and writeup here
Approaching our high point below Castle col:
Powder runs down to the road on day1:
Had some fun jumping on some highly crossloaded rollovers. These were pretty much plum north, and were loaded up from the westerly winds.
Fun pow on some sheltered east facing bowls
Later in the weekend we kept notching up the slope angle slowly and were seeing some decent sluff, but nothing that wasn't manageable:
We did OK on the 23rd as well.
Winter camping in MRNP is underrated. Not only is the gate slow to open, but it frequently doesn't open at all ==> your own private ski Paradise.
Reply to this TR
Please login first: