February 14, 2008, Granite Valentine
2/14/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
4219
5
Will T. and I decided the time was right for Granite and headed there "before" work today. We didn't make our usual time to the summit, so we made it to work at 1 pm, rather than the usual 10 am.
When we arrived at exit 47 ~4:30 am, everything was sparkly with 1/8-1/4" hoar frost. The Granite trailhead is not plowed out, nor is the bridge across the Snoqualmie. The old highway was nicely plowed as far as we could see. Followed a competent and fat-skied solo skin track from yesterday part way up before going our own way. Surprisingly little debris in the main chute. Either it's buried, or it's not there. The usual winter ridge yielded excellent turns, as did the trees and other open spaces. The upper mountain's W side, along the ridge, had been, as usual, hammered to ice. Looked like maybe nice turns to be had further onto the W side, but we didn't want to do the stability analysis. Booting beat skinning once on the ridge. Turned back ~400' below the summit due to less than stellar snow, more than mild W wind, and more than a little wind-loading going on.
Snowpack was ~6-12" of moderately light powder at nearly all elevations atop a solid, if soft (1-2 finger hard), crust atop rounded 1F wet snow as deep as my 3-4' deep pit would go. Probing below with the shovel didn't feel anything either. Higher up, the crust was perhaps pencil hard. Effectively nothing moved on us, only tiny unconsolidated sluffs of windpacked snow. The bond betwixt the crust and powder was spatially variable, but overall moderate. The powder was quite heavy at low elevations on our way out at noon. The usual N-facing slope on Humpback had slid in its steepest spot, but no other activity was apparent. Tahoma grew a nifty globular multi-layered lenticular.
No photos from the down, the skiing was too good. Be safe this weekend!
When we arrived at exit 47 ~4:30 am, everything was sparkly with 1/8-1/4" hoar frost. The Granite trailhead is not plowed out, nor is the bridge across the Snoqualmie. The old highway was nicely plowed as far as we could see. Followed a competent and fat-skied solo skin track from yesterday part way up before going our own way. Surprisingly little debris in the main chute. Either it's buried, or it's not there. The usual winter ridge yielded excellent turns, as did the trees and other open spaces. The upper mountain's W side, along the ridge, had been, as usual, hammered to ice. Looked like maybe nice turns to be had further onto the W side, but we didn't want to do the stability analysis. Booting beat skinning once on the ridge. Turned back ~400' below the summit due to less than stellar snow, more than mild W wind, and more than a little wind-loading going on.
Snowpack was ~6-12" of moderately light powder at nearly all elevations atop a solid, if soft (1-2 finger hard), crust atop rounded 1F wet snow as deep as my 3-4' deep pit would go. Probing below with the shovel didn't feel anything either. Higher up, the crust was perhaps pencil hard. Effectively nothing moved on us, only tiny unconsolidated sluffs of windpacked snow. The bond betwixt the crust and powder was spatially variable, but overall moderate. The powder was quite heavy at low elevations on our way out at noon. The usual N-facing slope on Humpback had slid in its steepest spot, but no other activity was apparent. Tahoma grew a nifty globular multi-layered lenticular.
No photos from the down, the skiing was too good. Be safe this weekend!
The fat solo track was my splitboard from a recon trip out towards Pratt Lake yesterday, glad it was of some help.
Meant to post something last night about the suprisingly good snow quality even down low. Looks like you scored a great day.
Meant to post something last night about the suprisingly good snow quality even down low. Looks like you scored a great day.
Thanks indeed for the skintrack. It saved the usual wandering when looking for places to cross the mini-streams in the dark.
Did you have skins on on the way out? There were remarkably few attempts to check speed evident in the tracks.
Did you have skins on on the way out? There were remarkably few attempts to check speed evident in the tracks.
author=trumpetsailor link=topic=9185.msg37035#msg37035 date=1203029561]
Did you have skins on on the way out? There were remarkably few attempts to check speed evident in the tracks.
Splitters dont speed check...we's need all the speed we can get to avoid getting out the poles ;D
Yep, skins on in split mode for the track out.
Although the lack of speed checking is directly related to my inability to ski well in split mode ;D
Although the lack of speed checking is directly related to my inability to ski well in split mode ;D
That looks like a cool place with a fair amount of verticle! Nice that you can just zip up there is a short amount of time.....
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