Home > Trip Reports > April 29, 2014, Mighty Mt Pilchuck +1968 ski area

April 29, 2014, Mighty Mt Pilchuck +1968 ski area

4/29/14
WA Cascades West Slopes Central
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Posted by artfreeman on 4/30/14 5:15am
Dicey and I summited the mighty Mt. Pilchuck around noon yesterday.  If I get her photos I'll post one of us skiing right into the lookout. The north side of it is drifted over and the ladder is buried.  So the good news is that the snow up high will last for some time, but down low it is going fast.  We parked about 5 minutes from the TH, and with the warm days ahead, I think you'll have to hike a little at the start very soon.

The snow was a bit thick and sticky, but we were smart and had set our expectations low, which is so often the key to an enjoyable day of spring skiing.  I used my 90mm rig, and was linking turns no problem in smooth warm chowder.  Looked like it snowed 4-6 inches up high and we did not ski the steep SE chutes.  We looked and poked at it, but it just looked to dangerous, and of course, we were aware of avy warnings and recent accidents.

Instead, we skied back the way we came but then dropped over into the creek gully and skinned back up to the high point on the ridge, where we would have gone had we survived the SE chutes.  So I guess it was actually pretty good if we took two runs.

The attached scan is from the book Northwest Ski Trails, by Marge and Ted Mueller, published in 1968 by the Mountaineers (used by permission).  Crazy to think that there was a chair and runs below the parking lot.  Not much snow down there these days.
That's cool. Thanks for sharing that!

Cool scan from the book. Nice to run into you guys. Thanks for help with sunglasses. Good times at Pilchuck....


Dang, looks nice. A coworker and I were planning on heading up to the lookout for the night after work yesterday then riding down this morning, but balked due to the avy warning and thoughts that nothing would freeze overnight, leaving top-to-bottom isothermal mush to deal with.

Thanks much ! We were wondering .

That was a good read,

thanks for posting.

Regarding stability: we found two faint crust layers, at 2.5in and 8in. Otherwise it was completely consistent. ECT failed at 16 at the first layer (2.5 in), it was not sudden/planar. Upon trying to remove the block it broke halfway across, splitting the column above the fracture in two. Pretty good indication of surface weakness, but no indication of propensity to propagate. We observed solar affected point release evidence and no wet slab activity.  Pole penetration between 2-6in. We chose to avoid the steeper sections and roll-overs.

Probaby significantly different closer to the passes, and following another day in the oven ... But might be helpful info to some.

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artfreeman
2014-04-30 12:15:04