December 14, 2007, Alpental
12/14/07
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2954
1
Harnessed up the dog, skinned up the split and zipped up to the top of lower international at about 11 this morning.
4-6 inches of medium-dense powder at the parking area (wouldn't call it cement though -- decent cascade freshies). Maybe 7 inches at the top of Sessel, 8+ at the top of lower i. significantly less in the trees. The fire road from lower lower nash to the top of Debbies basically doesn't exist right now.
Dug a pit at the top. Under the 8 inches of soft new stuff there was a 2.5 foot base that was very dense but not frozen solid and seemed to be w/o layers upon prodding. I cut out three blocks. None broke from pressure on top. Pried from behind, two released at the level of the powder (8 inches) the other cleanly fractured about half way through the 2.5 feet of dense base. I tried to reproduce this deeper fracture on the other columns and couldn't -- they broke up when I really cranked on them but no clean fracturing.
The top layer occasionally cracked 6 or so inches outside the skin track on the way up, but pretty rare. I sidestepped a few very steep short sections and nothing moved, and I ski cut really hard (like jumped and pushed) on the first steep section at the top and it wouldn't move. The bond between the powder layer and the base below seemed okay to me for the amount of snow it needed to hold, but if the temperature changes and it gets more loaded by tomorrow I'd be pretty cautious.
I'm far from expert -- these are just my observations of some things the snow did, so definitely make your own calls.
I enjoyed a leisurely cruise down. There is still a whole lot of surface contour and obstacles to be looked out for, open creeks, and the light was kind of flat light. And there is smallish avy debris in lower nash and the "shot" to skier's right. But it definitely was deep enough to make powder turns, and I didn't touch bottom the whole way down.
All in all I'd say Alp right now could be fun for good skiers and boarder who can go fast and still maintain excellent "micro" control as they avoid one small dip, bump, runnel, stump after another. I'll wait for another foot or so to smooth things out a little.
4-6 inches of medium-dense powder at the parking area (wouldn't call it cement though -- decent cascade freshies). Maybe 7 inches at the top of Sessel, 8+ at the top of lower i. significantly less in the trees. The fire road from lower lower nash to the top of Debbies basically doesn't exist right now.
Dug a pit at the top. Under the 8 inches of soft new stuff there was a 2.5 foot base that was very dense but not frozen solid and seemed to be w/o layers upon prodding. I cut out three blocks. None broke from pressure on top. Pried from behind, two released at the level of the powder (8 inches) the other cleanly fractured about half way through the 2.5 feet of dense base. I tried to reproduce this deeper fracture on the other columns and couldn't -- they broke up when I really cranked on them but no clean fracturing.
The top layer occasionally cracked 6 or so inches outside the skin track on the way up, but pretty rare. I sidestepped a few very steep short sections and nothing moved, and I ski cut really hard (like jumped and pushed) on the first steep section at the top and it wouldn't move. The bond between the powder layer and the base below seemed okay to me for the amount of snow it needed to hold, but if the temperature changes and it gets more loaded by tomorrow I'd be pretty cautious.
I'm far from expert -- these are just my observations of some things the snow did, so definitely make your own calls.
I enjoyed a leisurely cruise down. There is still a whole lot of surface contour and obstacles to be looked out for, open creeks, and the light was kind of flat light. And there is smallish avy debris in lower nash and the "shot" to skier's right. But it definitely was deep enough to make powder turns, and I didn't touch bottom the whole way down.
All in all I'd say Alp right now could be fun for good skiers and boarder who can go fast and still maintain excellent "micro" control as they avoid one small dip, bump, runnel, stump after another. I'll wait for another foot or so to smooth things out a little.