Feb 17, 2007, West McHiggins Spire
2/17/07
3000
2
Dave C and I headed up to check out Mt Higgins near Darrington this morning, hoping to ski one of the big tilted slabby things before it warmed up too much.
From Swede Heaven, we were able to drive to around 1400ft before hitting snow, which was fine since the road was gated and overgrown there anyway. We traversed several miles on a logging road until we found the right clearcut and there started being enough light to see things. Within a few hundred feet of climbing in open woods, we saw avalanche debris well down in the mature forest, below the gullies which lead to the ridge. There was a lot of debris, which is not surprising.
In one spot, many of the trees had fingers of snow extending up 30 feet above the ground on their uphill sides. I can't imagine the debris was that deep when it went through here, so maybe it was caused by a powder cloud. But strange to have the snow still there a week later.
Up higher above the avy gullies, we saw the snow on the slabby thing had fractured at some point during the last storm cycle, but hadn't slid completely off. Instead, it was buckled 2/3rds of the way down (where the angle was gentler), piled up like seracs. In addition, there were "crevasses" running across the slope - through these we could see the snowpack was thin (2-3 feet), with some water running on the smooth rock slab beneath. eek.
The snow on the upper half was several inches of powder topped with a thin crust. Hopefully the sun would hit the face and melt it just as we were heading down.
That turned out to be what happened. We were worried about the hard ice layer we could feel on the way up, but the skis weren't hitting it on the way down.
There was a short section of mediocre snow below the "powder", and then the aspect veered right and we had nice smooth corn for several hundred feet. Then we had to deal with 1500ft of avalanche debris. Luckily it was softening and not too bumpy.
Dave plowing through some crust
A slough came down sometime after we skied...
From Swede Heaven, we were able to drive to around 1400ft before hitting snow, which was fine since the road was gated and overgrown there anyway. We traversed several miles on a logging road until we found the right clearcut and there started being enough light to see things. Within a few hundred feet of climbing in open woods, we saw avalanche debris well down in the mature forest, below the gullies which lead to the ridge. There was a lot of debris, which is not surprising.
In one spot, many of the trees had fingers of snow extending up 30 feet above the ground on their uphill sides. I can't imagine the debris was that deep when it went through here, so maybe it was caused by a powder cloud. But strange to have the snow still there a week later.
Up higher above the avy gullies, we saw the snow on the slabby thing had fractured at some point during the last storm cycle, but hadn't slid completely off. Instead, it was buckled 2/3rds of the way down (where the angle was gentler), piled up like seracs. In addition, there were "crevasses" running across the slope - through these we could see the snowpack was thin (2-3 feet), with some water running on the smooth rock slab beneath. eek.
The snow on the upper half was several inches of powder topped with a thin crust. Hopefully the sun would hit the face and melt it just as we were heading down.
That turned out to be what happened. We were worried about the hard ice layer we could feel on the way up, but the skis weren't hitting it on the way down.
There was a short section of mediocre snow below the "powder", and then the aspect veered right and we had nice smooth corn for several hundred feet. Then we had to deal with 1500ft of avalanche debris. Luckily it was softening and not too bumpy.
Dave plowing through some crust
A slough came down sometime after we skied...
Here's Phil skiing the West Face with Whitehorse & Three Fingers in the background.
Nice report!
The snow plastered up the old-growth is really interesting.
What is "Swede Heaven"? It must have something to do with festering fish...? Does valhalla translate to "big, rotten barrel of stewed and rotting cod chunks"? Just curious.
The snow plastered up the old-growth is really interesting.
What is "Swede Heaven"? It must have something to do with festering fish...? Does valhalla translate to "big, rotten barrel of stewed and rotting cod chunks"? Just curious.
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