February 18, Kendall Ridge
2/15/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2492
2
Jerry S. and I skiied up to Kendall Ridge today. Parked on the east side of exit 53, went up thru the trees, crossed the small creek, and then continued to followed what looked like a solo skier's tracks that looked about a day old. Zig zagged on up on to the ridge -- to the knob at about 4700 feet on the NE flank of Coal Creek. As we climbed, we moved more and more from the S to the SE flank of the ridge. Snow on the SE side of the ridge but was icy as hell; really kinda sucked in places, but skinning wasn't too too hard.
Up on top of the knob, we dropped down onto the SW side, hoping for powder blown from the easterlie winds from the past day or two. Found a few little pockets/stripes of it, but it was interspersed with stripes of hard, icy crud ... some of it crumbling and breaking up, some not. Turning was kinda tricky in the crumbly stuff.
Neither of us were stoked on the snow, and my boots were still breaking in (read: brand new!!) 8) so we decided to call it a one-run day.
Yeah so... lameass snow, >:( and no cameras brought... but what a damn nice day to be out!!! ;D Cold and clear, light breeze. Great view of Rainier peeking above the slopes of Summit Central. didn't see all that many skiers on the Snowcrummy slopes across the valley... and one would hope they were all season ticket holders ...
Up on top of the knob, we dropped down onto the SW side, hoping for powder blown from the easterlie winds from the past day or two. Found a few little pockets/stripes of it, but it was interspersed with stripes of hard, icy crud ... some of it crumbling and breaking up, some not. Turning was kinda tricky in the crumbly stuff.
Neither of us were stoked on the snow, and my boots were still breaking in (read: brand new!!) 8) so we decided to call it a one-run day.
Yeah so... lameass snow, >:( and no cameras brought... but what a damn nice day to be out!!! ;D Cold and clear, light breeze. Great view of Rainier peeking above the slopes of Summit Central. didn't see all that many skiers on the Snowcrummy slopes across the valley... and one would hope they were all season ticket holders ...
Saw your tracks up there - looked lovely, much like what we found. ;)
Dunno about summit central, but under the Silver Fir the groomers were really quite nice - buttery hardpack (not powder or anything like that, but quite carvable w/o loud noises).
Dunno about summit central, but under the Silver Fir the groomers were really quite nice - buttery hardpack (not powder or anything like that, but quite carvable w/o loud noises).
Yesterday's conditions in the Snoqualmie Pass area rivaled New England for challenging snow. I agree with all - fun outing, even with the dreadful conditons.
A picture does tell a story. Here's one to exemplify the "changeable conditions" you could find:
This picture was taken on a NE slope at 3,000'. In it you will note:
1) The small ripples in the snow bed surface is the ice crust that makes the base for entire slope. Sometimes it's ice, sometimes boilerplate, sometimes felt, but always hard.
2) Avalanche debris. Some of these beautys are huge ice boulders that are the furniture in the living room of life - an obstacle to go around.
3) Wind packed powder (about 4-5" of trapped cold smoke!) that looked like it had been powder once in its infancy, then became wind packed over time, and then was ripped violently away by high East winds. What remains is delightful, if you can link two turns in it.
4) Sustrugi - this was the surprise of the day. Sections of this snow was very fine ripples and released powder clouds when you edged in it, and the relative smooth surfaces of the hardened sustrugi fields were an ironic refuge from the ice bed surface, uneven avalanche debris fields and other varients of windboard.
5) Trees - we attempted to seek cover in the trees, hoping to find sheltered powder, but only found what we call in the East 'hardpack'.
After searching all day for a few decent turns, the best powder turns were found right above the parking lot.
Granted, even after all that, we still had 1) a couple of powder turns 2) wonderful views 3) low avalanche danger. Which, when all added up, is a far cry better than what the poor folks in New England are experiencing right now. Temps were in the mid 30's and raining in Northern Vermont on Friday, and in just 6 hours it went to the single digits, then in twelve hours negative 6 F Saturday morning. The snow, well, I bet it wasn't so good skiing!
A picture does tell a story. Here's one to exemplify the "changeable conditions" you could find:
This picture was taken on a NE slope at 3,000'. In it you will note:
1) The small ripples in the snow bed surface is the ice crust that makes the base for entire slope. Sometimes it's ice, sometimes boilerplate, sometimes felt, but always hard.
2) Avalanche debris. Some of these beautys are huge ice boulders that are the furniture in the living room of life - an obstacle to go around.
3) Wind packed powder (about 4-5" of trapped cold smoke!) that looked like it had been powder once in its infancy, then became wind packed over time, and then was ripped violently away by high East winds. What remains is delightful, if you can link two turns in it.
4) Sustrugi - this was the surprise of the day. Sections of this snow was very fine ripples and released powder clouds when you edged in it, and the relative smooth surfaces of the hardened sustrugi fields were an ironic refuge from the ice bed surface, uneven avalanche debris fields and other varients of windboard.
5) Trees - we attempted to seek cover in the trees, hoping to find sheltered powder, but only found what we call in the East 'hardpack'.
After searching all day for a few decent turns, the best powder turns were found right above the parking lot.
Granted, even after all that, we still had 1) a couple of powder turns 2) wonderful views 3) low avalanche danger. Which, when all added up, is a far cry better than what the poor folks in New England are experiencing right now. Temps were in the mid 30's and raining in Northern Vermont on Friday, and in just 6 hours it went to the single digits, then in twelve hours negative 6 F Saturday morning. The snow, well, I bet it wasn't so good skiing!
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