Mt. Snoqualmie, Feb 25
2/15/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
1872
0
Sometimes, the weather report can really be tricky. As of 10:00 PM last night, the forecast for today was partial sun. Sweet, said I, let's ski the Slot Couloir.
Next I checked good-old NOAA, around 6:00 AM the following morning, the forecast called for clouds and precipitation. Rats.
Undaunted, we drove to Alpental. It was raining from Issaquah onward. In the maintenance lot at Alpental, however, it was roughly 35 degrees and... snowing. Upon setting out, we found about 1/4" of new snow on top of a barely to slightly unfrozen base.
The climb was interesting. From the top of the waterfall, we were able to skin straight up the main gully - i.e. no switchbacks. I only slid backwards uncontrollably once. But, by the time we exited the treed section at around 4800', the barely to slightly unfrozen base had become solidly frozen. We could no longer climb straight up. We could barely traverse. It was like playing hockey on a very steep ice rink. We turned around at about 5500' because we couldn't climb any more without crampons.
The ski down was almost not bad. Where there were no snowshoe tracks, uptracks, boot pack tracks, avy debris, or tree bombs, the snow was buttery and smooth. Sadly, these un-besmirched patches of butter were fewer and farther between than one normally likes. So, needless to say, there was some chattering of the edges.
The waterfall had significantly less snow and significantly more holes than it had last week.
Next I checked good-old NOAA, around 6:00 AM the following morning, the forecast called for clouds and precipitation. Rats.
Undaunted, we drove to Alpental. It was raining from Issaquah onward. In the maintenance lot at Alpental, however, it was roughly 35 degrees and... snowing. Upon setting out, we found about 1/4" of new snow on top of a barely to slightly unfrozen base.
The climb was interesting. From the top of the waterfall, we were able to skin straight up the main gully - i.e. no switchbacks. I only slid backwards uncontrollably once. But, by the time we exited the treed section at around 4800', the barely to slightly unfrozen base had become solidly frozen. We could no longer climb straight up. We could barely traverse. It was like playing hockey on a very steep ice rink. We turned around at about 5500' because we couldn't climb any more without crampons.
The ski down was almost not bad. Where there were no snowshoe tracks, uptracks, boot pack tracks, avy debris, or tree bombs, the snow was buttery and smooth. Sadly, these un-besmirched patches of butter were fewer and farther between than one normally likes. So, needless to say, there was some chattering of the edges.
The waterfall had significantly less snow and significantly more holes than it had last week.
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