Home > Trip Reports > December 6, 2015, Bullion Basin (Crystal BC)

December 6, 2015, Bullion Basin (Crystal BC)

12/6/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
3434
5
Posted by radka on 12/6/15 1:51pm
Based on telemetry and snow depth, we thought Crystal Backcountry would be a good choice. We originally wanted to go to Cement Basin but ended up at Bullion Basin environs instead. Sadly, we arrived to a 35F parking lot and light drizzle. With only a few inches of snow at the parking, the road from Lot C to Bullion Basin didn€™t seem like it had enough coverage yet. Just missing the shuttle bus, we walked to the church and started skinning from there for some bonus vert.

The first 1000€™ of climbing was rather sad. All the snow that fell yesterday was getting hit with rain and tree bombs were falling steadily. Once we made the final switchback and started the traverse to Bullion Basin, we observed lots of loose wet rollers triggered from tree bombs on southern aspects since the sun was already poking its head out. Once we reached Bullion Basin, I noticed the north facing slope of point 6479 and said I wanted to check that out.










We gained the N-S ridge north of point 6479 and got our first glimpse of the next basin over to the east. We immediately spied some nice looking terrain and decided to make a run on it. We skied a SE aspect run that was getting quite a bit of sun exposure and the snow was very heavy. Climbing back out of this basin was a major chore. I think we did 800€™ in an hour and a half. Trailbreaking was brutal and we were getting 6-10 inches of ski penetration.









After regaining the ridge, we headed over to point 6479. On the way there, we got 2 small whoomph€™s while skinning just below the ridge at 6300€™ on a SE aspect. We hit the north slope cautiously knowing that it could have some wind loading, but nothing moved. Instead we got stellar powder turns in light snow that didn€™t have any solar impact. A great day out exploring areas around Bullion Basin!









Nice trip, Radka and Chris.
Sweet Report, Radka, great pics as usual.

Thanks for the report!

I was riding lifts at x-tal. First day of the season for Chinook, Rex, Queen and High Campbell. Sure was an impressive storm. Zero to hero. Surrounding peak like Silver King were very rocky a few days ago; on Sunday they were completely plastered. In-bounds control work produced substantial slab avalanches on N through E slopes.




Thanks for the info! We were very curious what ski patrol and all the artillery found.

Fantastic photos as usual. The light was magical out there yesterday. I toured up East peak by myself, then met up with Erik and Mike who had put in the skin track. (Thanks!) I dug a quick pit on a sw facing slope just below the summit of east, and found a faceted sugary layer beneath a crust with 2+ feet of heavy fresh snow on top. The layer wasn't very reactive, but we did hear/feel some huge whumphs of settlement. We kicked off a ~ 500 lb cornice chunk which produced no result on an NE aspect. Shaded NE facing slopes above 6k rode very well. We enjoyed watching you guys descend point 6479 from the top of East.







Wish I had chosen your path instead of riding the lifts. Great shots.

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december-6-2015-bullion-basin-crystal-bc
radka
2015-12-06 21:51:07