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December 5, White Pass expansion area

12/5/15
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
5772
11
Posted by GnarBLane on 12/7/15 12:26pm
Slept in the White Pass parking lot Friday night expecting somewhat of a crowd Saturday.  Never arrived, despite the great conditions.  I had phoned White Pass Friday inquiring about the expansion area and was told it wouldn't open for the weekend.

This worked out perfect for our group of 4 as we were taking my wife on her first tour and wanted to keep things fun and mellow.  Departed the lot around 7:45ish, there was one group of 3 ahead of us.

We took a break at the high camp lodge and to our surprise there were two workers who welcomed us inside to use the facilities and were brewing coffee.  Bonus! Visibility by about 9:45-10am had decreased along with the temperature/windchill and the forecasted 3" was looking to at least triple.  After a great rest we continued toward the ridge line on the west ridge.  We dug pits on some steeper aspects and noticed some minor slippage of a top 12"-14" layer of heavy snow.  We decided to stay and ski the wide open low angle glades. Coverage was great and snow skied phenomenal, White Pass delivers again!  At the lodge they mentioned likely opening next weekend. I'm hoping for the latter.

Making a habit to use my GoPro more this season as I've mostly been just a reader on this site for several years.  https://vimeo.com/148094530

Caught up with another group who had ventured up to Hogsback and said winds were whipping heavily straight up the face of the bowl on hogsback.  They opted not to ski the bowl as well.  Would love to hear conditions from anyone who did as I have yet another long weekend coming up!

If you can wear out not 1 but 2 young black labs, you're doing things right! Powder dogs in training.
A great trip report and video of a powder day with the whole family. ;)

O hey I stopped in to say hi to you guys when you were hanging out in the lodge. We went on to drop into the lower part of the bowl and did a couple laps on gunsight or whatever it is called... Upper part of the bowl was certainly concerning due to ongoing wind loading but we found very agreeable conditions over on gunsight.

Just did a hand shear at the top of Gunsight. 7 inches in the startzone on top of 1/4 inch ice layer, fairly unconsolidated at the time. From skiing two weeks ago I knew there was another layer below that ice crust but I wasnt concerned with it at the time. My bet would be the incoming rain homogenizes the snowpack and we get a fresh start with the old snow/new snow interface being the new layer of concern.

Bobby,

Lost my black Lab Joe last January.  He'd been just about everywhere in the Olympics and Cascades with me and I miss him even more when the snow is flying.  Video made me cry, but thanks for bringing back such great memories.  There romping looks just like Joe back in the day; he was always happy, but more so in the mtns, esp the snow  :).  Cherish their unconditional love as long as you have em.

Thanks for the vid! Did you hit the tree on purpose??? That was funny :-)

my dog blocked my turn, so I took one for the team!

author=Boot link=topic=35002.msg143688#msg143688 date=1449633490]
Bobby,

Lost my black Lab Joe last January.  He'd been just about everywhere in the Olympics and Cascades with me and I miss him even more when the snow is flying.  Video made me cry, but thanks for bringing back such great memories.  There romping looks just like Joe back in the day; he was always happy, but more so in the mtns, esp the snow  :).  Cherish their unconditional love as long as you have em.


Dogs bring out the best in us all!

Cool, I knew there had to be a story. I was skiing Sunday with my 8+ y/o Golden Lab so I completely understand and would have done the same thing!!!!

Skied the area Sunday and all of the Saturday trax were covered by deep snow.  Summited the Hog at the end of the day after lapping chair 6 twice and saw a nice set of tracks someone left in the bowl from the top.  Declined to follow them being too tired to think about hiking out.  Fresh lines all day.  Ran into two other guys in the afternoon.  Can't wait for the chair to start spinning.

You may have to wait on hitting the new snow.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/u-s-shut-down-wsdot-warns-of-extended-closure/article_609d449e-9e8a-11e5-b169-0706db383895.html

author=Wad link=topic=35002.msg143720#msg143720 date=1449723623]
You may have to wait on hitting the new snow.

http://www.yakimaherald.com/news/local/u-s-shut-down-wsdot-warns-of-extended-closure/article_609d449e-9e8a-11e5-b169-0706db383895.html


I noticed that, Have yet to see anything about the weekend operations on White Pass's website.  Thats a real blow to the bottom line as the road does not look anything like a quick fix...  Will be curious to see how things play out in the coming days.  I guess access from the East side if they open that.?

The rockslide near Rimrock looks like it could be fixed much faster than the washout west of the pass.  With a little luck perhaps they will open the eastside up to the resort for all of the Yak POW hounds.
Fingers crossed

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