4/13/2013 Snoqualmie Mountain wants to slide

Wow, we were headed for Big Trees but turned back after a few tree-well test hops showed poor stability. Bailed and did a few laps at West, which was pretty good!

Scary. Man, that it is as ready to go as it comes. Was it that bad yesterday too???

In the cascades, when it's April and dumping on a hard base, its going to want to slide off.  Also, it is ALWAYS going to be warmer (maybe just a few minutes!) later and want to slide off even more!  If it continues to dump, natural slides WILL be widespread.  Last Saturday and Sunday showed this quite well (Stevens backcountry/Sidecountry).  No need for pits or tech savy.  Stay low angle or EXPECT that it will slide, especially later in the day.  If enough snow gets into the steep trees, it will slide off there too!  On Sunday, it cleared and many slopes were showing naturals from late Saturday.  Both slab fractures and steep tree/cliff sluffs were evident on all aspects.  With caution (avoid climbing anything that hasn't slid, ++++), some slopes that had already slid were "do-able".

would have thrown my 2 cents in earlier were it not for the lack of an internet connection...
good stuff, thanks for the post.

Was it that bad yesterday too???

nope, it seemed to have settled quite well in 24 hours.  We went past cprahl's point of return for some sunshine powder -



- and to avoid Alpental congestion (hooray for that (and low expectations)). 
A short skin turned out quite nice!

What a contrast between the two days. Witnessed a slope that many had skied and skinned across on Saturday up on W. Kendall rip out circa 3:30 pm... quite sobering. Luckily no one was on it.  Fun snow though.  And always a learning experience.