June 5, 2014, Chinook Pass
6/5/14
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
4258
3
Road work will cause some waiting for one lane traffic between Enumclaw and Cayuse Pass 8-6PM Mon-Fri during June, as it did for us today. Despite a nice cool breeze, the sun pretty well cooked the corn on all aspects, giving us 3-4" soupy, somewhat sticky skiing 6500-5000'. S and SE aspects below 5500' are mostly unskiable now.
It was fun last Sunday around back in on the south ridge of Yakima Peak, east facing slopes and bowls. Still lots of snow right from the road.
A few pics from last sunday June 1st:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/11723786@N06/sets/72157644573395249/
We had a great 3-5 inches corn with no invisible glue or pollen!
We had not skied there before, so did a recon circumnavagation of Naches peak and gained the ridgecrest via a straight forward ascent of the SE shoulder.
One run down the WSW ridge was awesome, it looked possible to continue lower than Tipsoo lakes to lower switchbacks on Hyway 410, not sure if there is a good place to pull of the road there though (to get a ride back up).
A good second run was had above the PCT parking area.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/11723786@N06/sets/72157644573395249/
We had a great 3-5 inches corn with no invisible glue or pollen!
We had not skied there before, so did a recon circumnavagation of Naches peak and gained the ridgecrest via a straight forward ascent of the SE shoulder.
One run down the WSW ridge was awesome, it looked possible to continue lower than Tipsoo lakes to lower switchbacks on Hyway 410, not sure if there is a good place to pull of the road there though (to get a ride back up).
A good second run was had above the PCT parking area.
Good description, Skip! If we'd had more time/energy in the party I'd have liked to have also lapped some good looking stuff on the east side of Naches as well. Looked like a few folks had done so, and it appeared to be a decent length line.
Good payoff:grunt ratio there for this time of year for sure (Silas seems to know how to optimize said ratio! ;)), both in terms of turns as well as views and overall feeling of the terrain we skied through! Don - Jack(al) and I may have seen your tracks wrapping around Yakima when we took our last run of the day from one of the more reasonable high points on Yakima, more or less directly above the parking area with the bathroom.
Good payoff:grunt ratio there for this time of year for sure (Silas seems to know how to optimize said ratio! ;)), both in terms of turns as well as views and overall feeling of the terrain we skied through! Don - Jack(al) and I may have seen your tracks wrapping around Yakima when we took our last run of the day from one of the more reasonable high points on Yakima, more or less directly above the parking area with the bathroom.
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