March 16, 2019, Plummer Peak powder, couloir, avy

We talked to a party who got caught in a loose snow avalanche on the north side of the Castle going through the cliff band around 5500 ft I'm guessing. The person was caught and carried and buried waist deep but their friend dug them out with no injuries.

We did the east bowl of Plummer peak (we call it "The Bathtub" - faces North and the west bowl "The Kitchen Sink") and found surprisingly good unaffected powder from 6000'ish down to maybe 5500, then got heavier until almost did a forward roll in super slow snow around 5000'.

We scouted a new route down to the valley through the cliff band. Go far skiers left to an obvious but tiny gully. Voila! A little couloir that takes you to the valley floor. Maybe 20' wide at the top, opening up to 30'ish. Not very steep – reminds me of a run at Alpental – Felsen maybe? You have to sideslide and limbo under a downed tree at the top, but not a big deal. Be careful with falling snowpack, it's probably a waterfall. I'm guessing somebody must have skied it before, but if it needs a name, we propose "The Drainpipe" to keep the plumbing theme going.

The descent to the valley was predictably atrocious given the setting-up-concrete snow, but I had fun on my splitboard regardless. Crossing Tatoosh Creek (I think) was no problem.

Looked like someone did The Fly maybe on Lane – I bet it was pretty good if the stability was ok.

Another wet show avalanche crossed the road blocking one lane above the Nisqually Bridge on the way out. Really fun day.