January 21, 2008, Snoqualmie Bliss

      Cool blue skies, fabulous snow, and improved avy conditions mean that exploration is in order. Checking in with some of the usual suspects yielded responses ranging from injury to, "I'm stuck in the airport in Colombia." So, I settled for adding to and improving upon my options for dawn patrolling. What could be better than a tour in great conditions? Two! Skip to the bottom, past the drivel, for conditions information. Locations are irrelevant and suppressed.

Morning: Clear and cold, with just a hint of glow coming from the East. I got rolling later than I wanted to, but still long before sunrise. As a weekend warrior/dawn patroller, I was surprised to find myself amidst the beginnings of the morning commute. Great sunrise. Gas in North Bend, then to the pass, geared up and moving just after 8. Thermometer heading up the pass said 9 degrees F. Not sure I believe it, but it was nippy. Chatted with a pair of randonee-rigged folks on my way up the hill. Dropped them, then got off route (in some of the best snow I saw all day) and wound up following their skin track up a wee ridge. Reached my high point at a little after ten, to splendiforous views.
      Click, stomp, click, stomp go the Dynafits, and I'm off through great snow back down the ridge, through various forms of flora (some inviting, some rather unpleasant) and varied, but uniformly good, snow to the car. Not quite as great a route as I'd hoped, but fun nonetheless. Apologies to the folks above if I sideslipped the thin powder off any critical crusty junctures!
      Lunch.
      Fired up my trusty car and headed off to route number two. Yesterday's skiing was good, and I wanted to see if it still was. Skinning amongst the shadows in the sunshine was wonderful. Sunny and warm, shady and cool. The trees saw fit to drop occasional puffs of sparkling fairy dust instead of the big bombs they harbored in their upper branches. I switched my brain off and rambled up a safe route on the hill. The east winds blew a ~3/4 mile long trail of spindrift from Sunset Ridge on Tahoma - not a day, if there ever is one, to challenge the Willis Wall. Topped out in good time. I basked in the sunlight as I replenished my internal granola bar stores. Views from everywhere to everywhere else. I opt to trade the upcoming sunset for a chance to poke deeper into my personal unknown.
      Click, stomp, click, stomp. Moving again, through the finest, but not the deepest, snow this Virginian has ever skied. With no partners, the tempo and the decisions are all mine. Trees, open slopes, yawning gullies, everything - all covered in goodness. Whoops, maybe I'm lost. Hm, no, I'm doing it right. I make a committing move. Well, maybe not. Map time. Ooo, look, a quick traverse, and I'm awesome again. Awesome. Enough exploration and risk exposure for the day. I take an easy way out to known terrain. I lose my hat. I notice that I lost my hat. A little thrashing later, I find my hat. While I'm cruising my way back to the car, the Snoqualmie peaks are on fire with sunset. At the car, I'm happy. Sweat's freezing in the polypro, but I'm warm. We are so lucky to live here.
      As I leave the Pass, I call Seattle and order pizza. When I arrive, I pick up three of them. Two make it into the house.

Conditions:
      I skied on all aspects at various elevations between pass level and ~5500' except N/NE. Minimal to no settlement noted. Since I was trying to move fast but safe, I skipped pit digging in favor of sticking with conservative lines and perpetually reevaluating my surroundings.
      The east winds moved less snow along my routes than I'd expected. Only areas that I know to be extremely prone to loading from E winds developed kinesthetically obvious windslab, 1-2' thick at its thickest. Otherwise, it seemed like loading had happened in both directions, but fairly weakly - just enough to almost drift in yesterday's tracks in many places. In contrast, it looked to me, on the drive up, like Granite Mountain had been hit with stiff winds out of the East. I didn't encounter any winds stronger than 10-15 mph in any direction.
      The bond of the ~3-18" of powder to Monday's crust was extremely variable by aspect. Near tree wells in cold shady valleys, it wouldn't bear any weight at all. In most locations, however, it tended to stay attached in a friendly way. Some aspects, especially by late afternoon, saw things getting heavier, and starting to acquire windpacking/the beginnings of the expected sun crust :(.
      The sparkle of what looked like ~2-4mm of surface hoar on almost every snowy surface made the world beautiful, for the moment.
      The tree bombs are, for the moment, still in the trees. I encountered one 2 m diameter crater  that clearly appeared today. I was pleasantly surprised that nothing dropped while I skied the trees, as some forests are ready to flatten Dresden.