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Topic: Oct. 5, 2007: Chinook Pass vicinity (Read 2022 times)
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cascadesfreak
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Posts: 366
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Sourdough Gap area via Sheep Lake Basin:
Worried we might find sufficient snow coverage for decent skiing at Muir/Paradise, Kevin and I set our sights a bit farther northeast for a dawn patrol outing near Chinook Pass (following a last minute re-arrangement of work schedules yesterday to get out skiing before the forecasted weekend warming/rain).
Arriving at Chinook Pass at dawn, we were greeted with rock/vegetation-studded thinly snow-coated slopes (measured about 4 inches of snow at the parking lot just east of Chinook Pass). No worries for finding low snow cover 
Looking east the snow coverage seemed to taper off even more dramatically. Fortunately a couple inches of fresh light snow had fallen overnight to cover an underlying layer of refrozen mush, which provided nice skinning/gliding as we proceeded northeast on the Pacific Crest Trail. It seemed that some others recently had the same skiing idea as Kevin and I, as we found a day-old skin track in place on almost our entire planned route.
To our surprise, the skinning was good despite the low snow cover; after about a mile of skinning/gliding the coverage diminished to a mere dusting (hiked about 1/4 mile section of trail), but soon after changing aspects into the Sheep Lake drainage, the coverage was sufficient enough for skinning again.
Our approach efforts were rewarded upon arrival at Sourdough Gap, finding about 6-to-12 inches of fresh wind-affected powder bonded well to an ~6 inch thick refrozen snow layer in a leeward basin. The clouds began to part as we started skiing and by the end of the run we were under a sunny sky! A bit funky skiing the slabby upper 3-to-6 inch thick upper storm layers that peeled off fairly easily (only ran a few feet downslope), though the refrozen lower snowpack provided a good base and somewhat of a “shield” from the meadow beneath. Ski cut/kick turn tests revealed no movement of the deeper snow in contact with the underlying meadow. Skied more cautiously than usual owing to the relatively thin snowpack, but we still pulled off a fairly long ~600 vert ft low-to-moderate-angle run. Those 60+ turns far exceeded earlier expectations of only getting a few turns in, if any at all.
After skinning back up to a ridge top for partial views of Rainier peeking through the parting clouds, we traversed back to the Sheep Lake basin. The southerly aspects were already well sun-baked and sloppy (at about noon), but we still had fun skiing through the low-angle meadows back to Sheep Lake.
We continued with the skis on down the thin, rapidly melting snow cover on the trail to the exit from Sheep Lake Basin, making our “Joy-O-Meter” an unprecedented 100%!!! (vert ft hiked = vert ft skied) The southerly exposed trail back up to Chinook Pass had mostly melted-out since our ski down it earlier in the morning, so we ended up shouldering the skis for trail traverse back to the car. Possibly the best early October turns I’ve had somewhere besides the Muir snowfield!
Footnote: Some minor pin-wheeling was noted today beneath sun-baked rock walls. With the forecasted significant warming/rain this weekend, I might be wary of heavy, wet slide activity.
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FreeBird
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Posts: 283
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Nice turns!
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telemack
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Posts: 1327
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Crazy-early for freshies, eh.
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There is no cure for birth and death save to enjoy the interval.
George Santayana
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allyson
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Posts: 233
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looks like winter out there guys! luckies!!! 
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snowshoe?? why would you??
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cascadesfreak
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Posts: 366
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Crazy-early for freshies, eh.
Indeed. I don't think I've ever skied freshies below 6,500-ft around here this early in October.
Just got around to resizing the rest of the pics which are posted here.
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Kevin Steffa
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Posts: 86
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Note to viewers: 'Nice Turns' was shortly thereafter followed by 'Faceplant'! The turning muscles still need more stretching...
A fun tour with the sun and fresh snow in the trees, it felt great to skin.
Photos below - clicky on the picasa slideshow!
http://picasaweb.google.com/kevinsteffa/07_10_Chinook
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« Last Edit: 10/08/07, 12:44 AM by Kevin Steffa »
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Near-SourdoughGap1-Kevin-10-5-2007.jpg
