Baker 11/4

Just ended up being an afternoon exploratory tour. The skiing was interesting ... deep, deeep, deeeep pow. You really had to be on something steep to keep moving, and thats on a ski with a 95 mm waist. There was about 5 feet at Heather Meadows, lots more up higher. I couldnt reach bottom with my pole. Basically just came down cat tracks, 'cause those were the only places one could make forward progress. I did encounter some instability on convex terrain, saw some shooting cracks about 10" deep. The overall structure of the snowpack doesnt look too bad though, it gets progressively denser as you go deeper, and I didnt see any especially alarming layers. Wind loading will likely be the biggest problem, it was howling up there. The ski area crew was busy getting ready, they still have a lot to do before Tuesday. The main double to the top of Pan Dome was running all day, was tempted to try to sneak on...

I checked out the road into Twin Lakes on the way out, managed to get 3 miles in before getting stuck. There is a half inch or less on the ground at the WSDOT garage. From there up it gets deeper in an almost linear fashion.

Winter is here, lets be good hosts so it decides to stay ... go out and get skied.