Crooked Couloir?

Does anyone want to hazard a guess as to the skiability of the Crooked Couloir or other routes in the Snoqualmie/Alpental vicinity? I want to hit up something other than Alpental, but I'm not sure there's enough snow anywhere else... any guesses/suggestions?

While I cant say with certainty, I'd bet that the upper "bowl" of the crooked is "OK" to ski right now, but that the narrower exit section after the bend would be too thin to ski. All of that terrain in there tends to have a fair amount of bouldery junk, so you'll be dodging a fair amount of that too. Still, I think that the upper bowl would be OK.

I would second that. I was up there last year in mid-march (before the late snow came) and the coverage in the upper bowl was great when no ski areas were even open.

When you say the upper bowl would be fine, but not the lower part, do you mean once the couloir turns and gets steep? How much crappy skiing do you think this would entail? <br><br>Also, once you are at the entrance to the couloir, if it appears to be too thin, is there a good alternative route that can be skied?

"When you say the upper bowl would be fine, but not the lower part, do you mean once the couloir turns and gets steep?"<br><br>yes<br><br>"Also, once you are at the entrance to the couloir, if it appears to be too thin, is there a good alternative route that can be skied? "<br><br>i imagine that if the upper bowl of the crooked is too thin, then the slot coulior would also be too thin.  (i bet the upper bowl of the crooked is probably fine though)<br><br>I didn't pay much attention to how the phantom slide path approach looked when I was up at Alpy last weekend, but I bet there isn't enough snow in the trees yet to make this a very pleasant approach...might be easiest to start from the summer trail near I-90 and work your way to the top of Snoqualmie from Commonweath Basin.  

I think Volken's book suggests taking a rope to rappel the lower section if it isn't filled in, and if I were going up there this weekend I'd do the same. There are plenty of other routes from the top of Snoqualmie, down the south side, the Slot or the Phantom, but once you get into the Crooked and ski down the only ways out are either back up or down teh narrow section. The snow pack is still pretty shallow at lower elevations and while the top of the Phantom might be OK, the bottom is pretty sparse.