Home > Trip Reports > January 5, 2008, Mt.Catherine

January 5, 2008, Mt.Catherine

1/5/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2195
5
Posted by Pete A on 1/5/08 11:37am
Mellow day, fun to get into the backcountry after several weeks of sticking to the resorts. 

Dug lots o pits, a couple to the ground to see what our snowpack looks like.  Kinda surprised to see that things looked more stable than we expected.   Mid-December crust still very obvious, but it took about four hops on our RB to get it to break on the crust and I couldn't get it to budge on column tap tests (10 wrist, 10 elbow, 10 shoulder hits..no failure). The column finally popped when leveraging a shovel blade behind it.  But I'm willing to believe that higher up, out in open terrain, those crusts could be acting completely different and be a lot spookier.   
The newest snow was a bit of a concern though.  The top 5-10" of snow broke with less than five wrist taps, and it was a shallow slab where wind had affected it and a fast moving sluff in the steep trees. 
The skiing was good...I was a little worried about tree bomb damage due to the warm temps, but the glades around Catherine were actually quite nice calf/knee deep powder.


Also toured around Mt. Catherine on Sat; after a few pits, we decided to stay off everything steep. Tap tests failed after 2-4 wrist taps, shear tests with easy force, and a RB failed at knee flex. All tests were at ~4300 ft, N facing slopes. A couple failed just under the fresh 4-6 inches, most gave a clean shear at a granular-graupel layer at ~ 16 inches.

We were up today 1-6-08 . Quite a few people up there. Thanks for the inspiration Pete! Still some fun skiing and beautiful weather. No wind on the summit and clear views. Thanks for the nice skin track! Getting skied out on the SW side.

What side of Catherine were you all on and what route did you take to access, out of curiosity? Catherine was superb on NY's day!!! 

was skiing on the north/northwest side of Catherine....accessed it by using our season passes for a freebie ride up to the top of Hyak and then out across the xc skiing trails. 

Thanks Pete A...that's where I was as well, except I accessed via Silver Fir.  (hit up Radio Mtn. first). I definitely was wondering which access would prove best - Hyak or Silver Fir. Have you taken both? Preference? Thanks for the info!

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january-5-2008-mt-catherine
Pete A
2008-01-05 19:37:04