Home > Trip Reports > January 20, 2006, Stevens Pass

January 20, 2006, Stevens Pass

1/20/06
WA Stevens Pass
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Posted by silaswild on 1/20/07 12:44pm
After meeting and greeting several amigos, seven of us headed down the Crest Trail to approach Moonlight Basin from below.  Soon after beginning to climb to the bowl, we found six inch slabs easy to set off from our ski tracks.  There was a very light rain crust from yesterday afternoon and apparently some wind effect from last night.  At a short 30(?) degree slope we decided to leave the bowl for bolder skiers.  Across the street after noon, Yodelin seemed slightly more wind protected, although we saw a few similar slabs there too.  We found nice 1000' runs in 18" powder, and a group of 10 avalanche course participants had set a good track for us.  Hope some other Skyline Ridge visitors tell us of their experiences today.
Silas, Thanks for the nice skin track on the PCT.  I was planning to ride the lifts but the State Patrol chain stop backed up traffic and I was behind the power curve for the resort.  Pulled out the touring gear and followed a nice skin track up Heather Ridge.  It was snowing throughout the day with a light wind from the west.  I was surprised to find 18" of light snow along the uptrack.  Stopped along the western edge of Moonlight and descended the tight trees towards the PCT.  Being 6'3", I was surprised to find knee deep powder with face shots on the descent.  I did ski cut a  section on a rollover that was 10' wide and ran for 40'.  Met some friends along the PCT that descended a 30 degree slope on the edge of Moonlight that released.  Another group of 6 skiers were returning from Moonlight and talked about larger releases.  The word "sketchy" seemed to be used a bit. I made another run in the trees not far from the uptrack on a 25-30 degree slope in knee deep powder. A surprisingly deep powder day but with "sketchY' conditions. 

We spent the day just west of the pass... I would say these were the sketchiest conditions I've been out in this year.  We set off many slabs, intentionally and not, and some triggered remotely.  One which propagated a good distance in forest.  Several naturals from overnight, all around.  Lots of shooting cracks.
Yup, I would say fairly sketchy.

I was there also, witnessed many slabs and set one off myself. Crowns were mainly 12" or less. First slide was on the skin up breaking trail, slope right in front of the trailbreaker just broke away. Nothing huge though, tg. The fracture propagated maybe 20-30 feet w/ 12" or less crown.

Final note, it didn't really seem to matter what aspect you were on. If it was steep enough it would slide. Of course everything is kinda of loaded on the backside there.

I'll agree with philfort, sketchy. Hope no one is buried this weekend if other places experienced the same conditions!!

I could not agree more. I triggered a similar slab in the same area west of moonlight below the cell phone tower which propagated a long way as it slid.  Skecthy as hell. I stayed in the trees for the rest of the run and didn't go back for seconds. It scared the shit out of me! It was real deep and fluffy though!

Interesting day... the backside of Yodelin was surprisingly stable.  New snow at ~14" showed weak bonding, but only resulted in some surface sluffing.  On the long low angle tree runs it was a mixture of soft new snow and chunks of frozen tree dropped blobs.

Only run on the front side resulted in a 30' wide, ~16" deep slab releasing in front of me on a steeper slope. This was low down just as we intersected the skin path 2 switchbacks above the parking lot.

I will agree with Russ' conclusions about the back side, a lot of sluffing was going on in the more open and glade type areas enough so that my partner was covered up to his waist with the stuff that he was throwing off...ended up lift riding a little before noon on the backside of  Stevens proper and did some hiking off of southern cross chair and found it to be fairly consistent...taught lessons for a few hours later in the day (boy was that fun) and then headed home satisfied... 

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january-20-2006-stevens-pass
silaswild
2007-01-20 20:44:53