Home > Trip Reports > Heliotrope, Oct 17, 2016

Heliotrope, Oct 17, 2016

10/17/16
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3782
4
Posted by ebeam on 10/17/16 11:05am
There is this saying €œyou don€™t know unless you go.€ But seriously sometimes you do know it will suck. This was one of those day.

Regardless of €œknowing,€ I wanted to see what the storm did to conditions up on Baker€™s north side access. So Chuck and I went up and here is what we found:

1. The Glacier Creek road is intact and in good shape
2. We had the place to ourselves (not really a shock).
3. Snow starts a little above tree line but is very saturated and will melt away if warmish weather continues.
4. Snow above the Hogsback and on the lower glacier appears to be about 3 ft. deep in non-wind affected areas.
5. It was snowing hard Hogsback and above; raining hard from tree line down (even though we experienced a few sucker holes down lower).

We stopped just below 7,000 ft. at a crevasse. Skiing further was pointless. We had seen what we needed to see. Braille turns followed until rocks and bushes emerged. We got some good exercise. The new season has started. You don€™t really want to see pictures.
Very helpful...a reminder at this time of you year you need either a serious cold snap, or to ski above abt 7K.

tomorrows looking hopeful...

Was good to go during the brief weather break on Wednesday.  Trace at the base of the Hogsback, knee deep at the top and much deeper on the glacier.  All the little cracks in the typical zones were no where to be seen.  Deepest mid-october snowpack on the glaciers I've seen in quite a few years.  About 10 peeps, mostly splitboarders out and about.  Prepare for a gong show this coming Saturday.

Maybe 30 people showed up with skis and boards on Saturday. No gong show, just a bunch of people enjoying the start of the season. We found 6" of very nice powder on top of the rain crust. The day started bluebird and high clouds built throughout. Every run, it seemed we were treated to a sun break. Wind picked up by afternoon, gusting strong at ridgetop, and refreshing the tracks. I bet it's completely different today!

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heliotrope-oct-17-2016
ebeam
2016-10-17 18:05:01