February 25, 2006, Mt. Baker Herman's Saddle
2/25/06
WA Cascades West Slopes North (Mt Baker)
3877
8
I joined Paul and Andy from Vancouver for a day up at Baker today in search of some powder given the recent snows up there. No problems in that regard... loads of the stuff.
We were looking for a dictionary when we arrived at the parking lot as the forecasts were all calling for "Partly" cloudy skies but what we were seeing did not seem to meet any definitions of that word of which we were aware. It was totally cloudy. Nevertheless, the cloud ceiling was high and visibility was good. Our one mistake of the day was getting there a bit too early. Anticipating crowds heading up there for all the freshies we got a reasonably early start. Only problem... after only 5 minutes of following a nice trail through the powdery snows, we were on our own breaking trail most of the way up to Herman's saddle except for a brief time when we shared the task with some other groups. Quite a chore in the deep, soft stuff but a great work-out
The sun on Friday did not create any melt or crust layer at all. All we found was powder... deep, deep powder. About half-way up to the saddle, we dug a pit on a 20 degree south facing slope and found abouty 60 cm of unconsolidated powder on top of a hard crust layer about 15 cm thick. We did two columns. One sheared on the crust layer pretty easily with tapping on the shovel, but the second required a bit more force to get it to go (Arm 2 by Paul's estimation). We saw lots of slide debris but most seemed to be triggered from sloughs from up higher. Only one small slab on the south facing slopes above the route up to Herman's Saddle. When we started the day we saw a bunch of runs people had done off Ptarmigan Ridge below table that didn't appear to have triggered anything and when we came out at the end of the day we didnt' see much more debris, although by that point visibilty was pretty bad and it was hard to tell.
We skied over the saddle to the lakes on the west side. Except for firm wind-scoured, hard pack for 10 m below the saddle, the slopes down to the lakes were loaded with powder. It seemed deeper than on the east side of the saddle and you had to be on steep aspects, pointed straight down to keep up much momentum. We got down to the lakes with a great run then did a long slog back up to the saddle breaking trail the entire way until the very end when we finally met up with some other telemarkers and could follow their trail.
By the time we hit the saddle, visibility was pretty poor. High winds. Snow falling. We made our way down, finding some good turning along the way on steep aspects the high-tailed it back to the warm car.
With more snow tonight, there will be loads of soft powder to be had but pray for some of the trail to still be there or there will be some heavy duty trailbreaking to be done!
We were looking for a dictionary when we arrived at the parking lot as the forecasts were all calling for "Partly" cloudy skies but what we were seeing did not seem to meet any definitions of that word of which we were aware. It was totally cloudy. Nevertheless, the cloud ceiling was high and visibility was good. Our one mistake of the day was getting there a bit too early. Anticipating crowds heading up there for all the freshies we got a reasonably early start. Only problem... after only 5 minutes of following a nice trail through the powdery snows, we were on our own breaking trail most of the way up to Herman's saddle except for a brief time when we shared the task with some other groups. Quite a chore in the deep, soft stuff but a great work-out
The sun on Friday did not create any melt or crust layer at all. All we found was powder... deep, deep powder. About half-way up to the saddle, we dug a pit on a 20 degree south facing slope and found abouty 60 cm of unconsolidated powder on top of a hard crust layer about 15 cm thick. We did two columns. One sheared on the crust layer pretty easily with tapping on the shovel, but the second required a bit more force to get it to go (Arm 2 by Paul's estimation). We saw lots of slide debris but most seemed to be triggered from sloughs from up higher. Only one small slab on the south facing slopes above the route up to Herman's Saddle. When we started the day we saw a bunch of runs people had done off Ptarmigan Ridge below table that didn't appear to have triggered anything and when we came out at the end of the day we didnt' see much more debris, although by that point visibilty was pretty bad and it was hard to tell.
We skied over the saddle to the lakes on the west side. Except for firm wind-scoured, hard pack for 10 m below the saddle, the slopes down to the lakes were loaded with powder. It seemed deeper than on the east side of the saddle and you had to be on steep aspects, pointed straight down to keep up much momentum. We got down to the lakes with a great run then did a long slog back up to the saddle breaking trail the entire way until the very end when we finally met up with some other telemarkers and could follow their trail.
By the time we hit the saddle, visibility was pretty poor. High winds. Snow falling. We made our way down, finding some good turning along the way on steep aspects the high-tailed it back to the warm car.
With more snow tonight, there will be loads of soft powder to be had but pray for some of the trail to still be there or there will be some heavy duty trailbreaking to be done!
Chuck, Lara and I headed up to ptarmagine ridge with similar results.
http://spcmanspiff.users.poppinfresh.net/P9250068.MOV
http://spcmanspiff.users.poppinfresh.net/P9250069.MOV
We dug a few pits and found three to four feet of unconsolidated powder on top of the hard crust. In some places it was well bonded and took 5 soft taps and then 5 hard taps before it disintigrated (did not slide, just fell apart) and others it fell off after I isolated the column wiht my ski.
We did not head out on the ridge, just to the saddle south of table mountain and lapped the east facing slope, with rather good results - in the face!
http://spcmanspiff.users.poppinfresh.net/P9250068.MOV
http://spcmanspiff.users.poppinfresh.net/P9250069.MOV
We dug a few pits and found three to four feet of unconsolidated powder on top of the hard crust. In some places it was well bonded and took 5 soft taps and then 5 hard taps before it disintigrated (did not slide, just fell apart) and others it fell off after I isolated the column wiht my ski.
We did not head out on the ridge, just to the saddle south of table mountain and lapped the east facing slope, with rather good results - in the face!
Friday was the day in the BC at Baker. A yard of fresh powder with amazing stability. Did three laps of Hermann (two down the main gulley) and had fresh turns all day. It was a hell of a lot of work punching the skin track in to the top. Knee deep penetration and very unconsolidated. Best day in years locally.
Saturday was completely different. Lots of wind affect and warming temps made for a less than enjoyable snowpack.
Gregg
Saturday was completely different. Lots of wind affect and warming temps made for a less than enjoyable snowpack.
Gregg
But Greg, didn't you know that it was dangerous to ski the BC on Friday? The Internet said so!
BTW -- this is at least the third time this year that we skied BC at Baker on days considered to be dangerous and found a solid pack. On one day we had to skin past a sign reading "backcountry closed due to extreme avalanche danger". We spent a half hour on pits and RB tests, and then skied steep lines until our grins threatened to crack our earlobes, and nobody was there!
Ya just gotta go see!
BTW -- this is at least the third time this year that we skied BC at Baker on days considered to be dangerous and found a solid pack. On one day we had to skin past a sign reading "backcountry closed due to extreme avalanche danger". We spent a half hour on pits and RB tests, and then skied steep lines until our grins threatened to crack our earlobes, and nobody was there!
Ya just gotta go see!
I never read the avy reports. I too have often found good conditions when it was supposedly dangerous. If it is cold I head up and sniff around. We had the place to ourselves until people started up our skin track in the afternoon. Just missed you at the top of the skin track on our last run. The snow was beyond belief eh!!!
All the big stuff happened immediately, and it seems that two of settling was enough for everything that didn't slide right away.
Now, Saturday was a different story!
We thought we might get a lap or two in on Ptarmigan Peak before the light disappeared. When we got out there we re-learned a lot about how much wind that area gets!! Everything was scuplted. No way did we want to climb under the cornices on the West side of Ptarmigan, and the lid was descending, so we decided to head for the Table Hourglasses that looked so good the day before.
The skin across to the col would have been on a blown ice sheet, so we kicked steps up the SW corner of Table. It was a bit much like mountianeering. I was wishing I had those crampy things for your toes and a real ice axe.
At the top we were in a full blown blizzard. It took some poking around to find a way through the Inter Glacier cornices. We skipped the upper hourglass and headed for the lower. Our faith was finally rewarded with thigh deep blower on a 40+ degree slope. By braille!
We thought we might get a lap or two in on Ptarmigan Peak before the light disappeared. When we got out there we re-learned a lot about how much wind that area gets!! Everything was scuplted. No way did we want to climb under the cornices on the West side of Ptarmigan, and the lid was descending, so we decided to head for the Table Hourglasses that looked so good the day before.
The skin across to the col would have been on a blown ice sheet, so we kicked steps up the SW corner of Table. It was a bit much like mountianeering. I was wishing I had those crampy things for your toes and a real ice axe.
At the top we were in a full blown blizzard. It took some poking around to find a way through the Inter Glacier cornices. We skipped the upper hourglass and headed for the lower. Our faith was finally rewarded with thigh deep blower on a 40+ degree slope. By braille!
I saw one of Paul's pictures, iluka. You guys certainly didn't have the bluebirds in the sky like our last trip in January.I am free of my retraining purgatory now, so hopefully our ski tracks will cross again.
Bob
Bob
Hey Telemon! We missed you this past Saturday. It sure wasn't the bluebird day we had the previous trip there but the loads of powder helped make up for that. I could have used those super fat skis of yours this day. Looking forward to crossing trails with you again soon.
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