June 22, 2003, Chinook Pass

I was in Yakima Saturday for my daughter's soccer tournament and hoped for a Chinook Pass outing on the way home.  Weater report earlier in the week wasn't that promising, but I knew I'd be passing by anyway.  Things looked good from Yakima on Sunday AM - clear skies and the mountain looked completely clear.  My usual ski partner (10yr old son Zach) begged off.  He was more interested in a pool party back home than a day of skiing in less than ideal conditions.  He said "Dad, I've already got two days in June".

The drive up to Chinook pass from Yakima was beautiful with just a few clouds.  Much cloudier starting 2-3 miles from the pass.  As soon as I hit the pass, the ceiling clamped down - even fog with visibility 2-300 feet started right at the MRNP gate.  I wasn't too keen on solo skiing in fog, but I decided on a conservative trip since I was already there.

I ended up doing 7-8 yo-yos on the north-facing slopes above Little Tipsoo lake.  There was about 2" of fresh snow from the night before, but very wet and heavy.  Snow seemed stable on lower angle slopes, but there was a bit too much surface sloughing on anything over 35 degrees.  Being solo, I played it very safe.  Visibility was OK - 200-500 feet for most of the time.  It was one of those days when you just know that it could clear off any minute.  I felt the sun trying to peak through a few times, but it never did.  That was probably fine - sun would have made things even more slide-prone.

A pretty fun ski outing overall.  One of those "That was more fun than I thought it would be" days.  And the snowpack on the Naches peak side looks good for at least another couple of weeks.