December 30, 2005, Snoqualmie Mountain

Hungry for some turns after two weeks of high freezing levels, I sent out a trolling email yesterday afternoon.  Big Sky bit and ran hard with it, inviting me to join him for a return to the ski runs he had just enjoyed that morning.

Honored by the invitation, I immediately accepted, and then learned that the Seattle departure time was 5AM and some of his youthful posse would be coming along.  The warning lights in my head began to go off, heading up (infamous top 10 visited tay posting site) Mt. Snoqualmie with several young bucks full of testosterone, travelling in the dark through the cliffs, did I have enough self confidence to know when to say when?  

Meanwhile I started another conversation with one of "my people", member of the over 50 crowd.  He planned to wake up at 5AM and check the telemetry, maybe we could do our own gentler tour?  Up at 430AM, I checked the telemetry, and found too much wind at Crystal last night, low wind at Paradise and lots of snow, Snoqualmie Pass hovering around the freezing point all night.  Called him at 5 while waiting to meet the youths, realized we might have vehicle issues, so decided to stay with Plan A.  He wished me well and told me to make sure I made it home!

The ride up to the pass was rain all the way until Denny Creek where the State Patrol was requiring big trucks to chain up on the snow free pavement.  Sure enough it was snowing lightly and moderately breezy at the pass.  We were the first car in the Alpental lot, just beating the worker bees by a few minutes.

Off we went at 6:30, my first headlamp ski tour!  All those kick turns up the hill were better for me than any yoga or pilates workout, it was great to be back snorting that white stuff.  Nothing on the way up looked like it would be a problem on the way down, green light.  Avalanche control at Alpental provided the only break in beautiful silence.  One by one the kids moved farther and farther ahead of me, but I figured no problem, I could ski the nice trees alone if I lost them, and hopefully they could see my tracks on their way down if I had a mishap.

Entering open terrain on a bench 1000' (?) below the summit, I heard the lads chatting.  They had decided to lap the foot deep soft powder in the trees rather than power up wind affected snow to the summit.  Hmm, maybe these guys are sensible after all?  We had a great run down to where the fresh snow in the trees diminished to a few inches over the old rain crust.  

Discussion ensued with our driver about what time he must be back to Seattle for work, he made a few phone calls (telecommuting,  I want a job like that!) and added an hour to our fun.  Back up to the previous high point, the kids had some equipment issues and sleep deprivation lassitude that allowed me to more closely keep pace with them.

Another fine 1000' (?) powder run, then carefully following Sky to the easiest point to negotiate the 8' cliff section.  He straight lined (or is the word "hucked"?) it, turned in the air and continued down the slopes.  Lucky for me, one of his helpful bretheren advised me on a more conservative technique to reach easy ground.  We turned left out of the trees to find deeper powder, but heavy enough to pop my bindings on nearly flat ground!

Back to town by noon, with our driver conducting business all the way on his cell phone, darn these kids know how to balance work and play!

Looks like the lower freezing levels will continue through the weekend, let's get out there and enjoy skiing instead of dreaming and talking about skiing!