April 25, 2003, Snoqualmie Mtn, Crooked Couloir

Fresh snow on a Friday once again enticed my up Alpental way. This time I went with my brother, and was chided for my poor skinning technique and generally poor pace. Sigh. I am no alpine ubermensch like my brother, that is quite apparent, one reason I often find myself going on solo tours. We could have used an earlier start, as the Phantom Slide was enticingly powdery as we ascended, but turned to heavy mush by the time we got down it, although 'earlier' might have meant 4 AM given how long the whole circuit took. Once in the couloir, our first turns sent off some healthy but predictable sloughs down to an icy layer about 5 inches underneath on the first steep part, but thereafter there were lots of nice turns on north facing snow that had stayed in good shape thru the morning. Some rocks in the bottom neck of the couloir. Another group was in the Slot Couloir, and they probably slid that down to ice as well. The escape ascent out of the north bowl was pretty miserable for about the last 100 feet as it narrowed and steepened, I ended up having to boot it (poor skin technique redux).
SW face of Snoq and the Slide were sending various wet sloughs as the day went on, and many cliffs were spewing rocks and spindrift, it was pretty warm. None of slides were really that big and they moved pretty slow. A general lack of consolidation on the s facing slope makes it seem unlikely that it will corn up before melting out, but maybe we'll get lucky.
PS the alpental slopes had plenty of tracks, enough to make me wonder if someone fired up a lift or cat for some post season festivities.