April 8, Slot and Snoqualmie
4/15/08
WA Snoqualmie Pass
1900
1
I met up with Gorp and Ari this morning to try and make the most of whatever lingering winter snow we could find, and to hopefully, finally, get a crack at the Slot. We left the parking lot at about 7:45 and were able to make pretty good time to the top of the couloir. That was thanks largely to a party ahead of us that broke trail most of the way. Their skin track stopped short of the Slot, at what I think is the New York gully (aka 'Not-the-slot?' not sure of the consensus name). They managed to ski that line via a pretty sporty entrance, leaving some very nice turns and a couple entrance moves worth pondering. Strong work guys.
We made it to the Slot a little after 10. Things had filled in nicely after the weekend. The new snow was cold and loose on top, getting progressively denser. It was probably better than what we saw on the front of the mountain, which had some sun crusts interspersed in the top 1-2 ft of the snow pack. We dropped in and the snow was pretty fantastic. Maybe not quite as good as a couple weeks ago, but it felt like winter snow - in April.
After what seemed like just a few minutes, including a couple stops to collect the group past the choke points, we were down in the basin on the N side and 1600 ft lower. Wow. We climbed out of the basin on another nice skin track provided by the NY gully guys and said good by to Ari, who had to head back to town.
Gorp and I headed back up to the summit, thinking that the snow on the front side was still in good shape. We debated dropping into the Slot for a second lap, but settled on skiing the front side from the summit. That was a good call. A couple spots had thigh deep snow and things still felt cold, so we did it again.
On the last lap, things finally got a bit heavier. The top 1k was not as good as the first time around and at just under 5k the snow got really heavy. Not a surprise, but the skiing was still fun. We exited out the bottom of the Phantom and headed back to town, with plenty of daylight left.
It was a pretty damn productive day. Thanks Ari and Gorp for making it happen.
We made it to the Slot a little after 10. Things had filled in nicely after the weekend. The new snow was cold and loose on top, getting progressively denser. It was probably better than what we saw on the front of the mountain, which had some sun crusts interspersed in the top 1-2 ft of the snow pack. We dropped in and the snow was pretty fantastic. Maybe not quite as good as a couple weeks ago, but it felt like winter snow - in April.
After what seemed like just a few minutes, including a couple stops to collect the group past the choke points, we were down in the basin on the N side and 1600 ft lower. Wow. We climbed out of the basin on another nice skin track provided by the NY gully guys and said good by to Ari, who had to head back to town.
Gorp and I headed back up to the summit, thinking that the snow on the front side was still in good shape. We debated dropping into the Slot for a second lap, but settled on skiing the front side from the summit. That was a good call. A couple spots had thigh deep snow and things still felt cold, so we did it again.
On the last lap, things finally got a bit heavier. The top 1k was not as good as the first time around and at just under 5k the snow got really heavy. Not a surprise, but the skiing was still fun. We exited out the bottom of the Phantom and headed back to town, with plenty of daylight left.
It was a pretty damn productive day. Thanks Ari and Gorp for making it happen.
That was us yesterday just ahead of ya. We made two short 15m raps via trees on the side to get in to the "Snot" couloir (that's what I've heard it called). Roger went back today and skied it (65 deg!) no rap!! :D
Reply to this TR
Please login first: