March 18, 2007, Diamondhead Doofus
3/18/07
2205
1
Wolfs and I headed east to blewett pass in search of sun and corn. We passed through much rainage on snoqualmie pass...and in easton... will it ever stop. Ah...the clouds parted in Cle Elum. Nice and sunny at Blewett pass, but where is the snow. Not much left, but this did not deter the snowmobiles, nor us. Just enough snow on the snowmobile road to ski.
Then we decided to take the normal? direct route to diamondhead and left the road after 3/4 mile. Started good, but soon we found bare patches and did some "in the park" tricks over some logs and such. Eventually we found continuous snow again on the northside of diamondhead after much gnashing of teeth and edges.
Headed up and after one more portage made it to the eastslopes and eventually the top. Skied the soft mank on the east slopes and called it a day.
Skinned back up to the northside, and we found continuous snow down the northside, west of our up...track...er ur thrashing... Hit the snowmobile road at the 1 mile mark, right were a sign says..."snowmobiles stay on the road." The views of stuart and the enchantments, enticed and tortured us all day. May the teanaway road open soon.
More photos: here
Then we decided to take the normal? direct route to diamondhead and left the road after 3/4 mile. Started good, but soon we found bare patches and did some "in the park" tricks over some logs and such. Eventually we found continuous snow again on the northside of diamondhead after much gnashing of teeth and edges.
Headed up and after one more portage made it to the eastslopes and eventually the top. Skied the soft mank on the east slopes and called it a day.
Skinned back up to the northside, and we found continuous snow down the northside, west of our up...track...er ur thrashing... Hit the snowmobile road at the 1 mile mark, right were a sign says..."snowmobiles stay on the road." The views of stuart and the enchantments, enticed and tortured us all day. May the teanaway road open soon.
More photos: here
I was nonpleasantly surprised by the non-corniness of the snowpack up there at Diamond Head. No firm base, and even so in the earlier part of the day the surface crust on the north facing stuff was frozen hard. Maybe too little snow on the rapidly warming ground? Severe regression from the better corn reported last week up at Iron Creek not far away. By contrast, the previous day (Sat), on brief forays off the Snoqualmie nordic trails while I was doing the Catherine loop with my dad, the snow up at Windy Pass had a very nice firm base and good corn character. I guess I'm not very good at interpreting or knowing what conditions make good corn, but I would not have expected that going East for corn would be such a bust.
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