Dec20, 2006, Jolly Mtn.
12/20/06
WA Cascades East Slopes Central
2315
1
After the warming near the crest yesterday I wanted to see if the Cle Elum valley was far enough east to not be affected. Turns out the the snow from the trailhead at 2400 feet on up was still 8 inches of powder with a surface hoar. I was able to skin up the shallow rib line north of the main road system in a very sufficiently deep snowpack. At 5100 feet on the crest of Sasse ridge I turned around. Turns in the upper clearcut were challenging, in the open, due to wind affect. But any tree sheltered areas had great snow all the way back down to 2600 feet. If Thursday's new system keeps a freezing level at around 3000 feet or so it should be a great weekend up the Cle Elum valley. The surface hoar was significant (3/8 inch tall) so a heavy dump might be scary on steep slopes.
Christmas came early this year. My sister Jane and I were slogging along in deep and none too light snow with our 'everything for comfort' packs, thinking that maybe we should bail to the lower of the two campsites we like because with new snow coming we were not sure if we could get very far up the next morning anyway. (See the pic below, going down the next day.) Then out of the woods pops John, who had taken Route B. John not only set a nice track right to our campsite, but on up the ridge.
My hopes for the trip took a big jump right way! John stopped by on the way down for a visit and gave us a fairly encouraging report on the conditions. When we started out Thursday at 6:30 am, it was snowing so hard that all the headlamps illuminated were the snowflakes. But we had John's nice track to follow, so 'no prob' as they say. By the time we got to 4600' and started up the frontside, it was really blowing. The trees on the ridge top were waving around, snow blowing, not so hot visability.
We got out of the wind just over the top of the ridge, took the skins off, and lucky us, the weather moderated for a brief spell. So we skied down, pole depth 12 to 14 inches most of the way . Christmas did come early. Thanks John!
Larry
My hopes for the trip took a big jump right way! John stopped by on the way down for a visit and gave us a fairly encouraging report on the conditions. When we started out Thursday at 6:30 am, it was snowing so hard that all the headlamps illuminated were the snowflakes. But we had John's nice track to follow, so 'no prob' as they say. By the time we got to 4600' and started up the frontside, it was really blowing. The trees on the ridge top were waving around, snow blowing, not so hot visability.
We got out of the wind just over the top of the ridge, took the skins off, and lucky us, the weather moderated for a brief spell. So we skied down, pole depth 12 to 14 inches most of the way . Christmas did come early. Thanks John!
Larry
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