Jan 12, Mt Snoqualmie

Friday morning, Rob Stephenson, Shawn Martelock and I arrived at the Alpental parking lot around 5:50am. It was crazy cold, maybe 10 degrees. We quickly donned our gear and headed up the Snow Lake Tail, intending to at some point turn left to head further up Mt Snoqualmie. Maybe a kilometer up the trail, we angled up through some glades and finally across one of the open talus fields under the cliff line. The surface snow depth varied from maybe 5 inches to 15 in places and was on top of a VERY hard crust. So hard in fact, that no amount of stomping and jumping broke through it and only a couple of places could I jab my pole through. The skinning was quite difficult, as the tendency was to slideslip down the hill. It took consistent active edging to remain in place.

Since each ski had to be deliberately set with every step, the going was slow. About an hour and a half after leaving the parking lot at around 4200', we decided to give the skiing a try. The skiing turned out to be much better than expected. Without the skins on, it was possible to edge pretty well on the crust, and in many places, the fluff on top was enough to give quite a ride. Not bottomless, but it was some of the driest snow that I've ever skied in Washington.

The snow was nice enough that we immediately turned around for a second lap. It was tempting to go for a third, but Shawn and I had to get to work, and Rob had plans to meet up with some others to ski the lift area, so we quickly traversed back to the car.