Feb 10, 2013, Crooked dawn patrol
2/10/13
3601
4
We climbed the Phantom trees looking for some fun. After the normal nightmarish hardpack at the bottom, we found 8" of soft snow with a weak sun crust present on open slopes. The Slot had been lightly skied - sluffy snow up top, plenty of fresh down below, but we pressed on the to Crooked. Just a few tracks there, and a lot more room, so we dropped in. Phenomenal up top, then windpacked but still good, then slightly suncrusty but still good, then chundery but very soft and still good.
Hats off to the artists who put in the skintrack out of there - just perfect. The descent down through the trees was exactly what you'd expect: skiable sun crust in the open, soft but dense in the trees, and godawful at the bottom.
Anyway, North facing slopes are still great, or they were as of 10am today.
Hats off to the artists who put in the skintrack out of there - just perfect. The descent down through the trees was exactly what you'd expect: skiable sun crust in the open, soft but dense in the trees, and godawful at the bottom.
Anyway, North facing slopes are still great, or they were as of 10am today.
Thanks to TBill for the inspiration to check this line and for the sweet skintrack that appears to have been well utilized in the last few days. Patrick left his camera at home, but drew photographer duty by virtue of having an accessible pocket for my phone after my softshell was relegated to my pack. Quite a scenic day, with Rainier, Adams, Glacier, and Baker all visible to us at different points. A couple of the better photos attached.
The top three photos are great. ;)
My friend and I skied the slot the day after this. Surprisingly good snow for having seen a weekend worth of skiers go down it. I agree, that skin track climbing back to the col truly was great. The morass of terrible skin tracks on the way up the Phantom, however, left something to be desired. It would have made a great teaching moment for how to not put in a skin track.
TBill getting much interenet cred on that one. Thanks for the tip. We rode the crooked and then the circus later that day on the 10th. Crooked still had good snow and the circus was untracked pow. Fun alternative to the slot.. which looked like alpental from the top. Crazy there was still snow in there...I wouldn't have believed it when i looked in.
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