January 1, 2015, S Green Mt, Suiattle
1/1/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
5769
2
We finally got to Green Mt. It's been high on the early season to-do list based on the description by the infallible Rainier Burgdorfer.
The tour did not disappoint!
We drove to 3200' in the Subaru, scraping snow a bit the higher we got. I think we could have made the trailhead as others had, but there was a nice turnaround at a switchback and we could skin from the car so we called it good.
Up the trail to ~4000' where we decided to divert eastward and try the open slopes. The skinning in the trees was good, tho downed trees need extra negotiation in the shallow (<12") snowpack. The lower avy path to the east is lush with willows and they need more snow to make for easier skinning. Found some cliffs further east, and generally had a nice cascade slap fest getting back to the trail on the ridge at ~5000'. I won't be going that way next time... From there we headed straight up the ridge of S Green Mt and lapped the north bowl.
North side was in the shade all day and held 3-18" of light powder. Surface sugar was unconsolidated and unreactive to skis or the small cornices we dropped. Shaded areas had surface hoar crystals to 5mm, which made a nice festive sound as we skied :)
For our final run we skied the sun-drenched south face. As expected, it was quite different conditions. Ski pen at 2-8" in sunny slush. At dawn these slopes had a 1" thick sun crust, that should be getting thicker. There a lot of pinwheels and tree/rock droppings that would entrain the wet surface snow. The largest of these ran for over 1000' (on Wed 12/31) and scraped down ~24" to the ground on the lower slopes. We skied in late afternoon with caution from safe zone (trees, elevated rock islands) to safe zone. Only a few pinwheels, but our ski tracks did not result in large wet slides. Very thin in places with grass poking up through the snowpack.
Overall a great way to ring in the new year.
The tour did not disappoint!
We drove to 3200' in the Subaru, scraping snow a bit the higher we got. I think we could have made the trailhead as others had, but there was a nice turnaround at a switchback and we could skin from the car so we called it good.
Up the trail to ~4000' where we decided to divert eastward and try the open slopes. The skinning in the trees was good, tho downed trees need extra negotiation in the shallow (<12") snowpack. The lower avy path to the east is lush with willows and they need more snow to make for easier skinning. Found some cliffs further east, and generally had a nice cascade slap fest getting back to the trail on the ridge at ~5000'. I won't be going that way next time... From there we headed straight up the ridge of S Green Mt and lapped the north bowl.
North side was in the shade all day and held 3-18" of light powder. Surface sugar was unconsolidated and unreactive to skis or the small cornices we dropped. Shaded areas had surface hoar crystals to 5mm, which made a nice festive sound as we skied :)
For our final run we skied the sun-drenched south face. As expected, it was quite different conditions. Ski pen at 2-8" in sunny slush. At dawn these slopes had a 1" thick sun crust, that should be getting thicker. There a lot of pinwheels and tree/rock droppings that would entrain the wet surface snow. The largest of these ran for over 1000' (on Wed 12/31) and scraped down ~24" to the ground on the lower slopes. We skied in late afternoon with caution from safe zone (trees, elevated rock islands) to safe zone. Only a few pinwheels, but our ski tracks did not result in large wet slides. Very thin in places with grass poking up through the snowpack.
Overall a great way to ring in the new year.
Thanks for the reminder to get after this gem- we headed out there on the 3rd. I had some out of towners here for some skiing and we gave this a go. Climbed up to the high point at 5988... went past your uptrack and set our own marginal one up what would be scary terrain in unstable times...eventually booting to ridge top. Sweet run down into the basin below Green.... minor scrapes on crust below, but ~4-8" of light pow skiied very well.
Climbed up to the LO and skiied a run on the east face... deep pow. Got late so we only got one in before heading back out. Traversed out the shoulder of our first high point. Temps had cooled enough so the old crust was solid and just the overnight snow on top for about 3-6" of dust on supportable crust before sneaking down through the woods, which was fun with my terrible headlamp.
few more pics/map here
Climbed up to the LO and skiied a run on the east face... deep pow. Got late so we only got one in before heading back out. Traversed out the shoulder of our first high point. Temps had cooled enough so the old crust was solid and just the overnight snow on top for about 3-6" of dust on supportable crust before sneaking down through the woods, which was fun with my terrible headlamp.
few more pics/map here
That's awesome, glad you got it! Looks like you guys took a much more direct route than us. Wish we could've done that, but the rapid warming had us avoiding the south faces for most of the day.
That East face of Green looks great. Such amazing views too!
That East face of Green looks great. Such amazing views too!
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