Jan 20, 2007, Bullion Basin backside
1/20/07
WA Cascades West Slopes South (Mt Rainier)
2298
1
First time into the Bullion basin area -- beautiful terrain. Toured up over Bluebell pass and dug a test pit on the lee (south) side. The top 4 inches of heavier snow collapsed on the second wrist tap onto the 3-4 inches of lighter fluff below, all of that just above the rain crust of 1/7 or so. The next 3 feet below that was fairly well consolidated 4 finger to 1 finger snow, with barely detectable crust remnants at about 16 and 24" down from the top.
We found that top layer again further down, when one of our group was traversing toward a slight windlip and had a fracture line shoot out from his feet, followed by the slow release of an 8-12" soft slab, about 30 feet wide. It slid easily, if slowly, on the old raincrust and took all of the snow on the lee side of that little lip with it.
Toured up over Crown Point and then down through Pickhandle Basin to return via that last cat track to Lot C. Fantastic snow and a beautiful day, with only very localized instability, though that easy sliding layer could be a problem when it gets loaded up. Good stuff.
******
EDIT -- interesting. Reading other TRs from farther north, it's evident that the easy releases we were finding played a big role in more widespread instability when they'd been loaded with a little more snow, as expected. Sounds like the Stevens area was a little hairy in spots.
We found that top layer again further down, when one of our group was traversing toward a slight windlip and had a fracture line shoot out from his feet, followed by the slow release of an 8-12" soft slab, about 30 feet wide. It slid easily, if slowly, on the old raincrust and took all of the snow on the lee side of that little lip with it.
Toured up over Crown Point and then down through Pickhandle Basin to return via that last cat track to Lot C. Fantastic snow and a beautiful day, with only very localized instability, though that easy sliding layer could be a problem when it gets loaded up. Good stuff.
******
EDIT -- interesting. Reading other TRs from farther north, it's evident that the easy releases we were finding played a big role in more widespread instability when they'd been loaded with a little more snow, as expected. Sounds like the Stevens area was a little hairy in spots.
Marcus~
Good work, I explored out there on new years day, some good terrain for sure to be had out there, lemme know next time your going.
Good work, I explored out there on new years day, some good terrain for sure to be had out there, lemme know next time your going.
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