Feb 18, 2006, Chair Pk Circumnavigation, Snoq Pass
2/18/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2919
4
Encouraged by some reports of new snow earier last week, Rich and I toured around Chair Peak; this time in counter-clock wise. We saw two parties climbing the peak. The snow conditions were variable, some light powder, packed, crust, frozen, etc. One wind slab of about 100'x50'x6" on the Chair's noth slope. The Chair Peak Lk basin was mostly frozen ice/crust; luckly we were just acending there. Skiing down to Melakwa Lake was peacefull in the warm sun on mix of lightly packed powder, densely packed and frozen. The slope up to the Chair-Bryant col had the best snow; but we were hurring uphill. After negotiating 100' off the col on steep hard crust, we decided to take the bench route back to the Pinapple basin, instead of straight down the Bryant chute. The basin still has nice snow for this weekend, if you have a chance to tour up.
Skiing wasn't great, but the tour was.
Frozen Chair Peak Basin; Melokwa Pass on the upper right. (sorry Charles, it's bit oversized) ;)
Skiing wasn't great, but the tour was.
Frozen Chair Peak Basin; Melokwa Pass on the upper right. (sorry Charles, it's bit oversized) ;)
The tour is beautiful and I have had some variable snow conditions on the route over the years. Some folks refer to the tour as the Folklife Tour.
Zap
Zap
Nice work! The circumnavigation was our original goal for Friday, but one thing led to another and we ended up turning around at the notch on Chair's east shoulder. How was the skiing on Chair's north slope? It looked like it might be pretty good as of Friday afternoon. I've been thinking of what I might of missed ever since. I assume the windslab you mention released?
Thanks for your photo, it looked very inviting compared to the hard wind crust we had seen last Sunday. The snow on the north slope yesterday was skiable, but variable. We did kick off the small slab, but the rest was mostly shallow and well bonded. The last steep part down to the lake was negotiable, at best. Again we really enjoyed the tour despite the marginal ski condition.
We followed your tracks on Sunday. The ski conditions were horrid, but the views were great. Hope it snows again soon.
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