Mar 26, 2006, Tatoosh Range
3/26/06
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2070
0
Jason Gerend and I did a fantastic tour in the Tatoosh range on Sunday. We expected poor visibility and breakable crust, but found occasional sunbreaks and great powder instead. Our tour consisted of skiing up to the Castle Saddle bowl, traversing under the N face of Castle and up Pinnacle Glacier to the Castle-Pinnacle col, traversing around the S side of Pinnacle and up the NE side of Plummer to the summit, then dropping straight down the middle chute on the N side of Plummer (aka Plummer chute or Plummer Crack?). Much of N facing portion of the tour is visible in the picture below.
In this picture, Pinnacle Peak is on the left; the Pinnacle Glacier is hidden just behind the left-hand shoulder. Plummer is the rounded summit in the center of the shot and the chute we skied is down and slightly right from the summit.
Conditions in Castle Saddle bowl appeared to be quite good - ~6" of fluff on top of ~2ft of styrofoam. A Rutchblock below the Castle at the E side of Pinnacle Glacier showed a soft-slab release at 6" (the depth of the new snow) when Jason stepped on it, then a harder slab release about 2ft down after some vigorous jumps. Shovel shear tests further up the bowl showed the same 6" slab, but with much better stability. The S-facing slopes below Pinnacle Peak had a nasty 1-2" sun crust in most places, although I did find a nice stash below the Pinnacle-Plummer col. The N side of Plummer held 2-6+" of nice unconsolidated fluff that was a joy to ski. We had some minor loose surface sluffs on the steeper parts of the descent.
In this picture, Pinnacle Peak is on the left; the Pinnacle Glacier is hidden just behind the left-hand shoulder. Plummer is the rounded summit in the center of the shot and the chute we skied is down and slightly right from the summit.
Conditions in Castle Saddle bowl appeared to be quite good - ~6" of fluff on top of ~2ft of styrofoam. A Rutchblock below the Castle at the E side of Pinnacle Glacier showed a soft-slab release at 6" (the depth of the new snow) when Jason stepped on it, then a harder slab release about 2ft down after some vigorous jumps. Shovel shear tests further up the bowl showed the same 6" slab, but with much better stability. The S-facing slopes below Pinnacle Peak had a nasty 1-2" sun crust in most places, although I did find a nice stash below the Pinnacle-Plummer col. The N side of Plummer held 2-6+" of nice unconsolidated fluff that was a joy to ski. We had some minor loose surface sluffs on the steeper parts of the descent.
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