January 9, 2007, Yodelin

With the avalanche forecast not looking particularly great today, my friends Tyler and Lindsey and I opted to meet up Stevens Pass and head for some safer terrain at Yodelin. No one in the parking lot when we got there. We broke trail the entire way up but didn't find things too too deep and the going wasn't too bad. Once up on the ridge, we dug a small pit and found about 1.5 feet of unconsolidated -- about fist strength -- snow on top of a more consolidated layer (about 1-2 finger strength). We made several runs down through the open glades and in the trees finding about the same depth of soft layer on top as we found in our pit. Hard to move much if the slope wasn't of sufficient steepness. The snow in the trees was great but by late afternoon there were a fair number of craters from tree bombs. Still plenty of powder to be found, however and it was quite fun.

We've left in a pretty good skin track  but not sure what will be left of it after Thursday's forecasted snowfall.