April 5, 2008, Snoqualmie Pass

Dave K. and I headed out for an afternoon jaunt (my car actually passed the emissions test! Woo!). We moseyed about betwixt Catherine and the Hyak resort on lots of wet spring-ish snow. Didn't find anything like the conditions Pete A's described. It was, however, skiing, and therefore inherently fun.

I dug a pit to the ground in one of the big power line cuts on a SW aspect at 3000' to get a last glimpse of how the December layers had evolved. Bottom ~2" 4F and crunchy, next ~2.5' 1F and bomber, next 1-2' 4F moist and crunchy with occasional crusts, remainder ~2' 4F-fist and wet, topped by three seemingly well bonded crusts in the top 8". After the crusts, a ski pole from the surface would go easily into bottomless rotten rounds. Full pit depth was just a little over my 6' height.  Shovel shear while destroying the pit showed a lousy shear with considerable effort about 2' down. Seems early springlike to this tyro.