February 26, 2006, Commonwealth Creek area
2/26/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2564
2
Skinned into the Commonwealth basin from Alpental with no particular goal in mind but simply to learn the area. Apparently this is a popular place because there is the mother of all snowshoe/skintracks plowed into there, with multiple feeder tracks going all over the place. Fortunately all this traffic seems to have happened the day before as we had the place to ourselves besides a lone group of snowshoers.
We skinned up Red Mountain a little over halfway, and eventually encountered a pretty tedious wind kicking up spindrift all over the place. We felt somewhat sketchy up high on this thing, as we could not pin down what was stable and what was not. Instability appeared highly localized. We could do a quick hand shear in one spot and not receive any action, then further along on a very minor aspect change, a quality shear was more apparent. Since we felt a little out of control of this parameter, we felt it best to ski down and find something elsewhere. We skied down the main face just off the trees. As I ventured farther out on the face, it was possible to get more significant crack propagation off of sharp turns. It didn't feel very good in spots.
We went up Lundin Peak next. This offered some nice turns up high in the wind-packed areas and some protection from the sun crust on a few aspects. Down lower it was impossible to avoid this heavy crust, and it turned downright sludgy in places. The results from a minor change in aspect were very impressive. Powder turns into suncrust, then bulletproof, then back to powder. There was some slide activity up high on almost every aspect, but it was also very localized. The stuff that slide however, had sizeable crown lines. It was difficult to determine from this where instability was hiding. We also saw some activity on the slopes of Red Mountain after we skied it. The result was we had to pick our way slowly down, as we didn't want to ski ourselves into small pockets of instability. Overall we felt good about it, and had a great time with all the options available.
We skinned up Red Mountain a little over halfway, and eventually encountered a pretty tedious wind kicking up spindrift all over the place. We felt somewhat sketchy up high on this thing, as we could not pin down what was stable and what was not. Instability appeared highly localized. We could do a quick hand shear in one spot and not receive any action, then further along on a very minor aspect change, a quality shear was more apparent. Since we felt a little out of control of this parameter, we felt it best to ski down and find something elsewhere. We skied down the main face just off the trees. As I ventured farther out on the face, it was possible to get more significant crack propagation off of sharp turns. It didn't feel very good in spots.
We went up Lundin Peak next. This offered some nice turns up high in the wind-packed areas and some protection from the sun crust on a few aspects. Down lower it was impossible to avoid this heavy crust, and it turned downright sludgy in places. The results from a minor change in aspect were very impressive. Powder turns into suncrust, then bulletproof, then back to powder. There was some slide activity up high on almost every aspect, but it was also very localized. The stuff that slide however, had sizeable crown lines. It was difficult to determine from this where instability was hiding. We also saw some activity on the slopes of Red Mountain after we skied it. The result was we had to pick our way slowly down, as we didn't want to ski ourselves into small pockets of instability. Overall we felt good about it, and had a great time with all the options available.
Great report Ian,
As you can see from my trip report, Paradise had a completely different feel about on the same day you where out. We found differences due to aspect but nothing as sketchy as what you are describing.The pass is obviously a very differnt micro-climate than MRNP.(stating the obvious, sorry, ) buy I still find it interesting that your location matched the forecaster's " fragile snowpack with a very varied snowpack over short distances" whereas my location did not.
Strange stuff that snow.
8)
As you can see from my trip report, Paradise had a completely different feel about on the same day you where out. We found differences due to aspect but nothing as sketchy as what you are describing.The pass is obviously a very differnt micro-climate than MRNP.(stating the obvious, sorry, ) buy I still find it interesting that your location matched the forecaster's " fragile snowpack with a very varied snowpack over short distances" whereas my location did not.
Strange stuff that snow.
8)
Great report Ian,
As you can see from my trip report, Paradise had a completely different feel about on the same day you where out. We found differences due to aspect but nothing as sketchy as what you are describing.The pass is obviously a very differnt micro-climate than MRNP.(stating the obvious, sorry, ) buy I still find it interesting that your location matched the forecaster's " fragile snowpack with a very varied snowpack over short distances" whereas my location did not.
Strange stuff that snow.
8)
Our first red flag about Snoq was actually picked up as we left MRNP.
A big crown across the Zipper gave a wake up after encountering pretty solid stuff in the area.
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