May 10, 2006, Tooth/Pineapple Pass, Snoqualmie
5/10/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3310
2
With a forecast like the one on Wednesday, I figured I had to try a dusk patrol of some sort.
At 15:45 I narrowly escaped the cubicle farm in downtown Bellevue, scrambling madly for Snoqualmie pass. I arrived at Alpental Lot #3 at 16:40 and was able to ready my skins and change out of the yuppie office work attire which I wear 9-5 (or at least 9-3:45) and don my skis by 17:00. Just before I left the lot, a couple of elder statesman skiers appeared, saying they had skied around Pineapple Pass, and there was a climbing group of slowshoers descending.
The solitude was grand, with only the climber's car in the lot. I skinned quickly, panting out the stress of the day in the office. I ignored but took note of the Alpental sign stating that you could not walk uphill in the valley, I was suprised, I thought it was my National Forest. After about 15 minutes I saw the slowshoers with the big packs. One of them attempted to joke about teaching me to tele-turn with his snowshoe moves (....that was cool). I stopped at Source Lake at 17:30 for a bite to eat and some water. The ascent to the Basin below the pass went fast, kick turning over kind skinning snow. By 18:10 I was Pineapple pass where I left my skis and climbed under the cornice and scooted between the rock and snow for a couple of moves. I was at base of the South Face by 18:20 and on top of the Tooth by 18:38, back down and skiing by 19:10.
The climb was in good shape, only a couple short steps in some snowpatches but overall very dry and as clean as it has ever been. The solitude was nice and the weather was calm save for a little breeze. The clouds were moving in a litttle quicker than I had hoped, but it was nice, if not sunny on top, though I did not linger for long. Was great having such a nice and easy classic all to myself. Thank goodness there is no tram to the top....at least for now.
The ski down was good, snow was a little sticky where the angle softens at the bottom of Pineapple Basin (or whatever it is really called). The top 2-3 inches was soft, but the structure had not yet broken down into classic corn. Perhaps by next week.
I arrived back at the car at 19:25, in time to be home for late-ish dinner.
It is easy to forget how lucky we are in this part of the world to be able to work an 8 hour day and then get in a nice ski tour and climb after work; really takes the edge off the Hellish cubicle in which I dwell 40 hours a week.
At 15:45 I narrowly escaped the cubicle farm in downtown Bellevue, scrambling madly for Snoqualmie pass. I arrived at Alpental Lot #3 at 16:40 and was able to ready my skins and change out of the yuppie office work attire which I wear 9-5 (or at least 9-3:45) and don my skis by 17:00. Just before I left the lot, a couple of elder statesman skiers appeared, saying they had skied around Pineapple Pass, and there was a climbing group of slowshoers descending.
The solitude was grand, with only the climber's car in the lot. I skinned quickly, panting out the stress of the day in the office. I ignored but took note of the Alpental sign stating that you could not walk uphill in the valley, I was suprised, I thought it was my National Forest. After about 15 minutes I saw the slowshoers with the big packs. One of them attempted to joke about teaching me to tele-turn with his snowshoe moves (....that was cool). I stopped at Source Lake at 17:30 for a bite to eat and some water. The ascent to the Basin below the pass went fast, kick turning over kind skinning snow. By 18:10 I was Pineapple pass where I left my skis and climbed under the cornice and scooted between the rock and snow for a couple of moves. I was at base of the South Face by 18:20 and on top of the Tooth by 18:38, back down and skiing by 19:10.
The climb was in good shape, only a couple short steps in some snowpatches but overall very dry and as clean as it has ever been. The solitude was nice and the weather was calm save for a little breeze. The clouds were moving in a litttle quicker than I had hoped, but it was nice, if not sunny on top, though I did not linger for long. Was great having such a nice and easy classic all to myself. Thank goodness there is no tram to the top....at least for now.
The ski down was good, snow was a little sticky where the angle softens at the bottom of Pineapple Basin (or whatever it is really called). The top 2-3 inches was soft, but the structure had not yet broken down into classic corn. Perhaps by next week.
I arrived back at the car at 19:25, in time to be home for late-ish dinner.
It is easy to forget how lucky we are in this part of the world to be able to work an 8 hour day and then get in a nice ski tour and climb after work; really takes the edge off the Hellish cubicle in which I dwell 40 hours a week.
MAN! If you wouldn't have stopped for that bite to eat, you would have edged out my RT time from last week.
Nice well described TR JD. We are very lucky to live in this area I agree, especially with this years snow pack we can continue to enjoy. I agree the 'no uphill traffic' sign should be ignored now that Alpental is closed for the year. When the resort is open though, that sign is very much needed. I've had several close calls over the years. There's that section where people tuck to keep their speed up to glide up around the parking lot that's the main danger zone. A couple times this year there were large snow shoe groups fanned out across the whole trail, asking to get run over. In March, it finally happened. I was about in the middle of the tucking section and a couple was snow shoeing up with a dog named 'barney' (not on a leash). The dog darted out at me and I didn't have time to stop or dodge him. I plowed him. I think I broke his front left leg. I went tumbling and lost a ski. The lady said 'are you ok barney' to the dog. I said 'you better hope I'm ok lady!' I told them about the sign they ignored, and the level-headed man said they were very sorry. I told them if they're going to go through that area, put the dog on a leash and stay to the very side of the path, if not in the woods. I also recommended the snow lake trail to them. Unfortunately their day was over; they went back to their car with the dog putting no weight on that front left leg. Talk about preventable madness.
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