Home > Trip Reports > February 1, 2016, Snoqualmie Pass area

February 1, 2016, Snoqualmie Pass area

2/1/16
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3811
4
Posted by Jim Oker on 2/1/16 1:08pm
(yeah, yeah - should be in February, but the folder's not there yet and I don't have the keys to add it; thought someone might appreciate conditions report tonight...)
We found really nice snow in open areas (and lightly treed, or even open shots in the big forest), and moderate angle slopes were great for not every bottoming out on the ice crust. Mostly south open slopes skied really well from above 5K to the highway. The bottom ~1K was a bit warmed and heavy but still quite turnable. Forest was doable but just not as fun with less powder on the tree bombed and dripped crust.

Trailbreaking was not bad, with just a few slips on the underlying hard crust when sidecutting a few steep rolls. Again, moderate angle made things light and fun, as with the descent.





We saw tracks from what looked like two people with a dog here and there on our chosen bump, probably from yesterday, but otherwise it was blank canvas. Very nice!

That thar is a useful report, many thanks.

The base under the fresh snow was "glacier-like" pretty much bottom to top. Rain saturated but now a frozen brick.

Actually Skip, on the bottom ~.5-1K, where your path diverged from ours, I was finding that the saturated snow beneath the fresh stuff was still somewhat soft under a crunchy crust - it made for much softer landings on bumps etc. than we found above which was nice for the challenge of the maze.

author=Jim Oker link=topic=35644.msg145874#msg145874 date=1454441744]
Actually Skip, on the bottom ~.5-1K, where your path diverged from ours, I was finding that the saturated snow beneath the fresh stuff was still somewhat soft under a crunchy crust - it made for much softer landings on bumps etc. than we found above which was nice for the challenge of the maze.


Ah yes thanks Jim. I was mentioning the "bottom to top" with focus on the top. Just for keeping track of the season snowpack formation. I thought it was interesting to observe a pretty darn thick brickafied layer at higher elevations where we often find deeper and homogenous snow.  It also seemed a bit atypical to me, as the upper slopes did not seem to have have a lot of depth. On the upper slopes we were encountering more logs and sticks poking up under the snow than I recall from previous years (except for last year of course!).

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Jim Oker
2016-02-01 21:08:12