You Ignorant Slot - 3/18/08

Interesting day on Mt. Snoqualmie. It was barely snowing at the parking lot when we began climbing - that is to say, it was precipitating somewhat heavily, but what was falling from the sky was barely snow. For the first 1500' of the ascent, we found about an inch of snow on top of a horrendous breakable crust - likely the result of that temperature spike yesterday. Basically, it was ugly. But, veering left into the trees below the Thunder Creek exit, we found no crust and about 4-5" of unconsolidated snow atop a firm base. Then the sun came out (briefly). Above the trees, we returned to the breakable crust. It made the ascent annoying, because you had to stomp pretty hard on each step to break the crust and prevent your skis from sliding out from underneath you. We made it to the entrance in just over two hours.

Word on the street was that the Couloir was skied pretty hard over the weekend, but inside, we found 2-3" of wonderful snow, atop a firm base. It was the sort of snow that occasionally hit you in the face when you turned. I believe these are called "face shots," but I haven't confirmed this rumor. I hadn't experienced a "face shot" since early Feb. so that was nice.

Skiing the trees down the South side of Snoqualmie was surprisingly good. The snow was unconsolidated and edge-able. However, at around 4500' the snow became ankle breaking snow. It sucked. Luckily, we had just skied 2500' of really good snow to make up for the last 1500'. It took us 4 hours 15 minutes, car to car. All in all, a great Tuesday.