February 23, 2003, snoqualmie pass
2/23/03
WA Snoqualmie Pass
3159
4
Somewhere a few miles over the pass...
Sheltered slopes (wind and sun) above about 4K were really really nice. between about 3700-4000 was where the rain crust started getting buried by decent snow, and above that the base was either firm or deep. Even where there was crust, it was turnable. We didn't venture onto the tempting west slopes due to the rather large snow plume drifting over in that direction, but everything we experienced on more sw-s aspects was quite stable.
Similar to Silas' report on Bullion, there was great variation over small areas, so a good nose helps a lot!!
Sheltered slopes (wind and sun) above about 4K were really really nice. between about 3700-4000 was where the rain crust started getting buried by decent snow, and above that the base was either firm or deep. Even where there was crust, it was turnable. We didn't venture onto the tempting west slopes due to the rather large snow plume drifting over in that direction, but everything we experienced on more sw-s aspects was quite stable.
Similar to Silas' report on Bullion, there was great variation over small areas, so a good nose helps a lot!!
Good to hear the Snoqualmie area is starting to get enough snow to make some decent turns in the bc.
Thanks for the report, Jim.
Thanks for the report, Jim.
I might add that I was up in the kendall knob area on Monday and was pretty disappointed with the snow below 4K. It was a mixture of sun rain and wind crust, and from what I could tell the entire E facing portion of the knob had some kind of crust all the way up. I was there early in the morning tho and it is quite possible that crust will soften up every day around noon. Also, I could tell that it was going to get better (at least in the trees) once above 4K but unfortunately I ran out of time on my early morning jaunt. But if you are going up there consider that all the time getting to 4K won't result in any decent turns, everything below that level sucks. And there is still very little snow below that level also, most of what fell there last weekend must have been rain or wet snow that disappeared quickly.
Agreed - the snowpack was too thin from 2700 to about 3200 for decent travel on anything other than roads/trails and there were bare patches at that. We picked a route that allowed us to ski up from 3000 off-road but we were breaking through a thick-ish rain crust to something like 3800 or so, and we skied down from about 3700 on the road, which actually offered great skiing courtesy of the snowmobiles which had been "grooming" it all weekend long (which we avoided on the ascent). That time spent below 4000 was OK by me in order to avoid equivalent time on the highway, but I'm just that way, as some of my friends tell me :D
I'd add that the big clearcut Kendall Knob nearly always seems to be exposed to sun and wind, so I've only ever found really nice skiing there in corn snow conditions (though in the woods off the upper ridge there are some nice spots), but the cover seems a bit thin up there to hope for great corn experience this season - the small trees are still sticking out fairly far up the slope at least from looking at it from the highway so by the time we get much warmth I think it will be pretty tight up there.
It also is pretty exposed to highway noise - kind of aversive.
It also is pretty exposed to highway noise - kind of aversive.
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