January 31, 2016, Snoqualmie Pass
1/31/16
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2883
3
A fun adventure day. After teaching with the WAC Backcountry course on Saturday, a quartet of instructor-people headed off for learning of our own, trying an initially grandiose idea that tempered somewhat through the day. Lotta dust over scratchy crust in Commonwealth turned into fun turns in the Phantom. The Phantom access rock-step is as filled in as I've ever seen it.
Snow: At all elevations, we found a snowpack that consisted of the weekend's new snow (~25-30cm) sitting atop a wet ~1F 10-15 cm crust. Compression tests Saturday at Pass level and Sunday at ~4.2k went reliably on that interface at CT 12-18. The primary impact of the kinda-wimpy bond was to make skinning occasionally tricky. Sitting atop the new snow everywhere we traveled is a ~0.5-1cm layer of graupel. It survived today's weak sun on solar aspects.
Avalanche: Nada. Tiny, minimally-reactive windslab on Snoqualmie's S ridge. Graupel's happy to run loose dry, but there's not enough for it to be troublesome.
Skiing is fun. Thanks, all!
Snow: At all elevations, we found a snowpack that consisted of the weekend's new snow (~25-30cm) sitting atop a wet ~1F 10-15 cm crust. Compression tests Saturday at Pass level and Sunday at ~4.2k went reliably on that interface at CT 12-18. The primary impact of the kinda-wimpy bond was to make skinning occasionally tricky. Sitting atop the new snow everywhere we traveled is a ~0.5-1cm layer of graupel. It survived today's weak sun on solar aspects.
Avalanche: Nada. Tiny, minimally-reactive windslab on Snoqualmie's S ridge. Graupel's happy to run loose dry, but there's not enough for it to be troublesome.
Skiing is fun. Thanks, all!
author=Charlie Hagedorn link=topic=35621.msg145767#msg145767 date=1454293431]
A fun adventure day.
Agreed! That pretty much sums up our day too.
When we started around 8am temps seemed quite a bit warmer than what was forecast. A foggy and damp start, but beautiful in its own right (early bird gets the worm??maybe not)
We found conditions quite variable. Occasionally there was what seemed to be a frozen fog crust. We kind of made up our tour as we went along but ended up finding some really nice powder.
I even got out my puffy around noon at Hemlock Pass where temps seemed quite a bit more frigid (more wind too). Didn't see anyone all day once we left the Source Lake trail (vs. 100 people according to Mofro around Snow lake the previous day?!!).
Snow was quite a bit heavier when we exited there around 2pm. Fun day!
Still good snow in the area today. Some thin crust was present in one or two small spots, but mostly we just found stable powder.
I like those 2 photos in the 1st post; quintessential Snotqualime Pass.
The next batch are quintessential too, just the murk featuring!
The next batch are quintessential too, just the murk featuring!
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