April 3, 2004, Snoqualmie Mtn

Hoped that an early start and a short drive up to Snoqualmie Pass would give us some nice corn snow before it turned to mush.  It wouldn't be.  In the trees the snow had a firm crust (very dirty in places though) which made skinning easy in the morning.

Above treeline on steep southern aspects the crust softened and in places allowed sinking about 5-9 inches into a softer mush.  Below that was fairly firm.  Above 5300 ft at 10am was still very nice (firm crust with soft 1inch layer) so we decided to ski down at circa 5800ft in hopes of the lower slopes no going completey to slush.  The skiing was spectacular until we reached steeper lower slopes ( below 5200ft) then we were sinking into the soft stuff and trigging many sluffs on the harder layer below. Some of them were quite big, capable of carrying a skier down a slope.  Not dangerous unless runout unsafe.

Conditions only worsened during the day.  Talked to some skiers who skied north aspects (Crooked Colouir) and said the snow was firm with corn on top.  That would be the better way to go.