December 27, 2015, Snoqualmie Mountain
12/27/15
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2948
3
The slot had been well skied out by the time we got up there this morning so we gave it a pass. Peeked into the Crooked but the southerly wind was likely loading it so we gave it a pass too. Skied the phantom instead; a few 5"-12" wind slab pockets released, so caution is still warranted out there. But otherwise, still lots of great skiing!
Good info, thanks for sharing
author=mattgoyer link=topic=35223.msg144445#msg144445 date=1451276816]
The slot had been well skied out by the time we got up there this morning so we gave it a pass. Peeked into the Crooked but the southerly wind was likely loading it so we gave it a pass too. Skied the phantom instead; a few 5"-12" wind slab pockets released, so caution is still warranted out there. But otherwise, still lots of great skiing!
We came up a little later than you. The uptrack left of Phantom slide is steep in places, but super nice trek and breaks one out on the slope below the summit pyramid. Once out of the trees there is a good wind slab formed up from the strong E'ly-SE'ly that was blowing on Sunday, and the uptrack got wiped out in places. We gave the Slot a pass and retreated back down Phantom slide as well, which was very high quality and only the last couple hundred vert over the waterfalls required much thought. It snowed from noon onwards, and the pass became a mess for a while.
Skied the Slot today. We did notice the upper Phantom had some new wind slab. Hand pits on this SW aspect showed moderate planar releases about ~4" down. New snow in the couloir and apron was not very wind affected, although there is a dense layer below (old wind slab) from last week that is pretty well bonded. 3 friends ahead of us had put in the skintrack and skied the route before us. Watch out for these slab layers even though they seem difficult to propagate. Also, there are some nasty creek holes towards the bottom of the apron. Best snow of the day was in the lower Phantom.
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