Nov 23, 2006, Hyak Tour (closed)
11/23/06
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2836
1
Well, the first real day of my season was not disappointing. The webcams showed a nasty drive up the Pass, so expectations were high... Driving was marginal, and arrived in the Hyak lot to find 3-4 other cars. The snow was seriously hammering down; chatted with a gent on XC gear, who said he simply couldn't ski anything due to the depth, whoohooo!!!
We skinned up, and found the bottom third or so has some open creek crossings, and brush, but it pretty managable. Tried to take the Creekrun (far climber's right), but lots of brush led us back under the Keechelus lift. A friendly couple had set a track, which helped alot, as the snow was DEEP and HEAVY; 14-18+ in of fresh over the rain crust.
The ski down was superb as it was freshies, but it was a damn lot of work to stay steep enough to keep speed up, otherwise it was "water-buffalo-in-a-mudpit" time. After 2 hrs, there was another 5-6 inches of snow on the car, with no signs of abating. The snow line was down to 1200 ft on the drive back, so here's to the rest of the weekend!
We skinned up, and found the bottom third or so has some open creek crossings, and brush, but it pretty managable. Tried to take the Creekrun (far climber's right), but lots of brush led us back under the Keechelus lift. A friendly couple had set a track, which helped alot, as the snow was DEEP and HEAVY; 14-18+ in of fresh over the rain crust.
The ski down was superb as it was freshies, but it was a damn lot of work to stay steep enough to keep speed up, otherwise it was "water-buffalo-in-a-mudpit" time. After 2 hrs, there was another 5-6 inches of snow on the car, with no signs of abating. The snow line was down to 1200 ft on the drive back, so here's to the rest of the weekend!