Home > Trip Reports > Dec 13, 2015, Arrowhead Mtn (Stevens)

Dec 13, 2015, Arrowhead Mtn (Stevens)

12/13/15
WA Stevens Pass
3854
7
Posted by radka on 12/13/15 1:36pm
We started up around 9am with no other cars parked at the DoT shoulder. That could only mean one thing €“ we€™d be doing all the trail breaking. Soon we encountered open water running over the road, so it could also mean that Arrowhead is best done a little later in the season. It€™s possible this is a new washout but I€™m not sure since we€™ve only ever been here in March and the road has always been snow covered here.



We reached the clear cut at the end of the road 2-3 hours later and had lunch (~4500€™). Our memory of this slope was one of much more openness, so either the new growth there is on steroids or the snowpack just isn€™t that fat yet. Likely some combination of both. The snow was pretty stellar at this point €“ cold, dry, and fresh. We€™d had great weather thus far and started to get snow flurries now which were intermittent and eventually lead to more sun breaks.

We hit the bottom of the money slope (~5100€™) and saw a bunch of boulders that were not quite covered. Digging pole pits here and there, we saw the new snow had a good bond to the rain soaked snow below. The rain crust was about 3 inches thick and under that was softer rain saturated snow, that kind of felt hollow or airy. We did, however, observe the new storm snow would occasionally pop off on kick turns, but only at the corner and with little propagation.











Once above 5500€™, wind became a factor. We found isolated pockets of wind affected storm snow and 3€ wind slabs that would propagate several feet. 150€™ shy of the summit (no biggie been there plenty of times) we turned around at 2:45pm. We stayed in the trees until below 5500€™. We were able to get the 3€ wind slab to react a few times but nothing bigger than 6 feet wide X 10 feet longer. Where wind had not affected the new snow, we only managed to get some sluffing. Despite not all the boulders being completely covered, we found a few hundred feet of absolute hero turns with cold smoke trailing us.









https://radkaandchris.smugmug.com/Skiing/2015/Arrowhead-December-13/i-S2bQ4jK/0/XL/RAD_9914-Edit-XL.jpg" />








We made it back to the road at 4:15pm and had smooth sailing back to the car just before headlamp was needed. The snow from here down had become quite a bit heavier. Left the DoT at 5pm.

Nice to see Mr Chris skiing the way evolution intended him too again.

...though I am having a tough time making him out in the pictures.  Perhaps if he wore some bright clothing?  ;)

Seriously, nice photos!  Debbie & I were with 50,000 close personal friends on the frontside of Stevens, shaking the rust out of our legs.  Thanks for the reconnaissance.

-Dave

Stellar photos as usual, Radka! Thanks for taking the time to share them along with all the snow beta.

Lovely photos, as always Radka. It's interesting that snow scenes, even in color, often have a b&w feeling to them. But with Chris' colors added in they really pop!

Looks like a fun trip. -R

Looks like you guy had a fun trip.  I suspect there isn't enough snow cover short-cutting the road?

author=Kenji link=topic=35051.msg143995#msg143995 date=1450377322]
Looks like you guy had a fun trip.  I suspect there isn't enough snow cover short-cutting the road?

You could probably skin the shortcut but I wouldn't want to ski down it yet.

author=Dave_R link=topic=35051.msg143857#msg143857 date=1450114836]
...though I am having a tough time making him out in the pictures.  Perhaps if he wore some bright clothing?   ;)

A few years ago a photographer friend told me he wouldn't take my picture anymore if I didn't ditch my dark blue parka.

Reply to this TR

12839
dec-13-2015-arrowhead-mtn-stevens
radka
2015-12-13 21:36:29