Jan 24. North slopes below SNow lake
1/24/16
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3085
2
The 6" of new snow is sitting on a breakable crust. It skis really well on the north aspects and is well preserved out of the sun.
The north facing slopes have slid heavily, probably on Thursday / friday and there is a fair amount of debris around. I don't have the terminology to describe the bond between the new snow & the crust, but the new snow has not formed slabs & I couldn't get anything to slide, it's loose though & will sluff. No whumphing and no evidence of a preserved weak layer.
Saw a few natural slides on solar aspects, initiated by the sun or maybe tree bombs. There's a marked difference between the snow in solar and shaded aspects.
Great day, too many cliffs to get down on the skiers right side, the left looks like it will go though. Had a cup of tea with Igor the Russian sitting in the middle of Snow Lake. Wicked!
The north facing slopes have slid heavily, probably on Thursday / friday and there is a fair amount of debris around. I don't have the terminology to describe the bond between the new snow & the crust, but the new snow has not formed slabs & I couldn't get anything to slide, it's loose though & will sluff. No whumphing and no evidence of a preserved weak layer.
Saw a few natural slides on solar aspects, initiated by the sun or maybe tree bombs. There's a marked difference between the snow in solar and shaded aspects.
Great day, too many cliffs to get down on the skiers right side, the left looks like it will go though. Had a cup of tea with Igor the Russian sitting in the middle of Snow Lake. Wicked!
Glad to hear you got some nice turns!
There was a ton of solar activity with the new snow on the rain crust. Yesterday around 10:30/11 we observed a shedding cycle on S and SE slopes going up to the divide. Most of the steeper stuff slid. Three slides ended up entraining snow. Two, r1 d 2, went over the skin track that roughly followed the summer trail and the third, r2 d2, narrowly missed some snowshoers on the apron. It split just above those little trees lookers left of the bench (the party was just by the trees) and ran for most of the slope.
It was a cool to see and also to work through the group dynamics in my party, observing such an event :)
There was a ton of solar activity with the new snow on the rain crust. Yesterday around 10:30/11 we observed a shedding cycle on S and SE slopes going up to the divide. Most of the steeper stuff slid. Three slides ended up entraining snow. Two, r1 d 2, went over the skin track that roughly followed the summer trail and the third, r2 d2, narrowly missed some snowshoers on the apron. It split just above those little trees lookers left of the bench (the party was just by the trees) and ran for most of the slope.
It was a cool to see and also to work through the group dynamics in my party, observing such an event :)
We were there Sunday too, came up the summer trail early and did laps on the north side of the ridge above Snow lake. We waited until the shadow moved across the bowl before descending back to source lake as the loose slides were frequent during the peak heat of the day. The awesome cold days of December are behind us; from here on out getting early starts and timing are everything!
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