March 19, 2016, Mt Catherine
3/19/16
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2041
0
With the forecast of warming temps, reading TAY reports, consulting NWAC we decided to head to Mt Catherine in search of north facing treed slopes.
As we wound up Hyak and the nordic trials we found any snow that had seen the sun was baked solid and anything that had been in the shadows was surprisingly soft. We ascended via the NW ridge and continued to find snow conditions extremely sensitive to aspect. Lots of evidence of tree bombs made those areas firm.
We skied off the summit at around 11:30 as the temperatures continued to climb.
Lots of rollers picking up the soft snow. Fun turns were had up high but we found more rollers and tree bombed slopes as we descended.
Many slopes that we had seen as pristine on the ascent had become debris fields when we revisited them on the descent.
Eventually we were skiing mashed potatoes as we returned to the nordic trails.
Hyak was slush city heading back to the car.
No instability was seen regardless of the steepness of the slope.
As we wound up Hyak and the nordic trials we found any snow that had seen the sun was baked solid and anything that had been in the shadows was surprisingly soft. We ascended via the NW ridge and continued to find snow conditions extremely sensitive to aspect. Lots of evidence of tree bombs made those areas firm.
We skied off the summit at around 11:30 as the temperatures continued to climb.
Lots of rollers picking up the soft snow. Fun turns were had up high but we found more rollers and tree bombed slopes as we descended.
Many slopes that we had seen as pristine on the ascent had become debris fields when we revisited them on the descent.
Eventually we were skiing mashed potatoes as we returned to the nordic trails.
Hyak was slush city heading back to the car.
No instability was seen regardless of the steepness of the slope.
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