Home > Trip Reports > April 2, 2016, Snoqualmie Mtn

April 2, 2016, Snoqualmie Mtn

4/2/16
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3055
4
Posted by toddball on 4/2/16 7:15am
Paige and I decided to go look at the Slot today, and if that was a bust ski the Phantom.  This was the first time on Snoqualmie Mtn for both of us, so we read some TRs and guidebooks, made a rough plan on a GPS app, and went for it.

Surmounting the waterfall turned out to be very difficult, with some sketchy clambering on mossy rocks, and the first few kilometers were very slow.  Long story short, we made it a little past 5700', after passing some larger roller balls and old avalanche debris, and decided to turn around.  There was definitely a nice crust in some areas near/above treeline, but for the most part it was getting slushy and the top 5" slid very easily on the skin track.  The turns were pretty good down to about 4000', with some tight-tree routefinding. 

At 4000' we ended up on the edge of the Phantom, and I was able to release a small (D-0.5) loose-wet slide that stopped in a gully.  So, we decided not to ski the Phantom.  The way down from here certainly involved a good deal of routefinding, but fortunately did not involve actual downclimbing.  Despite the forest's best efforts to cover the snow with pine detritus, my bases look pretty good.
Surmounting the rock band that forms the waterfall is a crux of the route. Look for a weakness in the rock band in the trees to climbers' left, and a handy webbing loop in times of lower snow.  If you're more than slightly gripped, then you're probably not in the best spot. The weakness is only sometimes skinnable/skiable by a variation, but always bootable.

Thanks for the TR!

My buddy Corvs and I skied the slot today. All in all conditions were ok. No snow moving on the way up only had to boot up the waterfall section then skinned to the entrance. Slot skied well some sluff management required in the top then nice schmooo at the fan exit. Returned via snow lake divide.

jdrouches, what time did you leave the car/make it to the Slot entrance?  Nice work!

Left the car at 1030 back at 3. Later start than ideal but it was the best we could do. Forgot to mention a large slide (D2.5 or larger) that occurred during the day in chair peak basin. Ran all the way to source lake

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april-2-2016-snoqualmie-mtn
toddball
2016-04-02 14:15:12