April 2, 2008, Middle Folk Descent - Snoqualmie Mtn
4/2/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
1666
3
Left Alpental at 8:30am for a long day tour out of Volken's guide book with a minor variation. Instead of the Commonwealth Basin approach, we first ascended to the summit via the Phantom slide suppressing our desire to drop into the Slot on the way up. Two skier were getting ready at the Slot entrance as we passed by. The snow was mostly frozen sun-crust. Many deep tracks indicated great powder earlier this week. However, some soft snow in the tree shades suggested possible soft snow on the open north slopes.
From the summit ridge, we dropped into the steep north bowl on dense soft powder. The top 4~6" tended to slough off but without further action. Since we didn't ski off the east summit, we chose a lower saddle (high above the Crooked couloir) on the north ridge to cross into the east side basin. It was a beautiful side of the mountain we've never seen before, and there was still nice powder left untouched even under the bright sun.
Big slope skiing was now mostly behind us, and we continued on the narrowing ridge down toward the Middle Folk Snoq river. At around 2600', the snow was wet and heavy and the tree got dense to convince us to turn around. A total of 4000' continuous descent on a mountain one hour drive from Seattle! From here we toured back up 3500' along Thunder creek up to the west shoulder passing by many great ski slopes.
We were back at the car 4:30pm after 6500' up/down. It was a little committing tour since it'd be hard to reverse many steep sections. We really enjoyed this beautiful tour; highly recommended for experienced tourers.
From the summit ridge, we dropped into the steep north bowl on dense soft powder. The top 4~6" tended to slough off but without further action. Since we didn't ski off the east summit, we chose a lower saddle (high above the Crooked couloir) on the north ridge to cross into the east side basin. It was a beautiful side of the mountain we've never seen before, and there was still nice powder left untouched even under the bright sun.
Big slope skiing was now mostly behind us, and we continued on the narrowing ridge down toward the Middle Folk Snoq river. At around 2600', the snow was wet and heavy and the tree got dense to convince us to turn around. A total of 4000' continuous descent on a mountain one hour drive from Seattle! From here we toured back up 3500' along Thunder creek up to the west shoulder passing by many great ski slopes.
We were back at the car 4:30pm after 6500' up/down. It was a little committing tour since it'd be hard to reverse many steep sections. We really enjoyed this beautiful tour; highly recommended for experienced tourers.
Mokika and I did a similar tour on the 31st but we skied the entire crooked and then down the Thunder Creek drainage to about 3600’ and just toured back up. Hope you were able to find our skin track up thunder creek. We thought about going the way you guys went but we didn’t leave the car until 1pm. Sounds like a fun tour.
Nice job to both parties - way to get after it in a big snow year.
Geez - the exit to the slot is making it look more like something on the other side of the valley (served by the lifts).
Geez - the exit to the slot is making it look more like something on the other side of the valley (served by the lifts).
A couple of us started about 10am and followed the bomber skin track to the summit. Saw the tracks dropping into the upper Crooked and it all looked great!! We headed back down to the Slot. Neither of us had been there before and we were overjoyed at the freshiez we saw!! 1600ft of sweet April powder!! Quick skin up to the notch and some mushy spring smoo down the Phantom!! Unbelievably hot on the skin up!! WOW I was taken back at the temps all of a sudden!! Spring is trying, but lots of freshiez left!!! Thanks for the skin path!!!
Reply to this TR
Please login first: