Feb 13 Phantom Dawn Patrol
2/15/08
2305
0
Ari and I met at the Alpental parking lot at 6:10am on Wed morning to get a climb and some turns in before work. I hadn't been up since all the snow started and was impressed with the pile-up since my last outing Feb 27th.
Despite dry weather overnight in Seattle, Alpental base had 4-6" of nice powder overnight and it was still snowing.
The most adventurous part of the morning occurred trying to scale the 12' high snowbank at the road. Ari located a low point in the snowbank and tossed his skies up and over to gain the use of his arms--only to realize the snow was lower here due to running water and his skis were now 40' down in the creek. A short detour up and over another low spot and a hike down to the creek below resolved this problem and saved our morning. Soon we were skinning towards the waterfall.
I've never found a real good way around the waterfall, but some steep skinning and climbing using small trees got us there. I think I need to make a wider detour.
A pit at 3800 feet showed 4"-6" powder over feet upon feet of well bonded but wet snow -- fist density for about a foot and then 4 fingers or fewer below. We weren't able to produce any kind of recognizable sheer in the top 5-6' of snowpack. It felt very safe. I might think the snow up at 5,000 feet might be totally different having had less rain.
Feeling good about this, we climbed a little further before claiming a few turns and tackling the waterfall straight on, which has great coverage and quite fun and steep to come down--skiers right. No photos--sorry.
Despite dry weather overnight in Seattle, Alpental base had 4-6" of nice powder overnight and it was still snowing.
The most adventurous part of the morning occurred trying to scale the 12' high snowbank at the road. Ari located a low point in the snowbank and tossed his skies up and over to gain the use of his arms--only to realize the snow was lower here due to running water and his skis were now 40' down in the creek. A short detour up and over another low spot and a hike down to the creek below resolved this problem and saved our morning. Soon we were skinning towards the waterfall.
I've never found a real good way around the waterfall, but some steep skinning and climbing using small trees got us there. I think I need to make a wider detour.
A pit at 3800 feet showed 4"-6" powder over feet upon feet of well bonded but wet snow -- fist density for about a foot and then 4 fingers or fewer below. We weren't able to produce any kind of recognizable sheer in the top 5-6' of snowpack. It felt very safe. I might think the snow up at 5,000 feet might be totally different having had less rain.
Feeling good about this, we climbed a little further before claiming a few turns and tackling the waterfall straight on, which has great coverage and quite fun and steep to come down--skiers right. No photos--sorry.
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