January 19, 2008, Tatoosh

Conditions were not that great. A stiff sun crust dominated all open slopes, guess we should have paid closer attention to what the temps did on Friday. Wind was strong and transporting fair bit of snow, most of it needly and painful on the face. We stopped shy of the saddle climbers L of Castle, where I'd estimate wind was a constant 40mph, and decided it was no fun. Vis was OK but not great. The upper section was pure crust but as we descended more pockets of decent snow were encountered, and this part had decent skiing.

The sun crust was pretty strong and slippery and in places where there was any snow on it would sluff off easily. Brief investigation of layers under the sun crust indicated another crust 8" down that had a medium-poor bond.

Not wanting to deal with the wind again, we decided to go on a tour, and headed for Mazama Ridge from there (starting from behind Reflection Lake). Didn't quite make it to the point on Mazama where there's a nice bowl dropping the Stevens side. Pretty on the ridge, and acceptable snow on a weaker crust, but really too flat to be a tour for turns.