Humpback Mountain

The sustained cold temps have made Snoqualamie terrain an absolute blast this past week.

Started out at 22F at the car in the morning. The temps felt a lot colder than some of the other days last week that hit lows like 5F -- combination of cloud cover, wind and moisture from the incoming storm perhaps?

Initially, we made our way out via the Annette Lake trail as we didn't see a skin-track leading up the shoulder of Humpback. The coverage down low in the trees looked much thinner and surprisingly melt-freezy than other places I toured last week around Snoqualamie.

Taking the round-about route, we eventually got to the old snowshed and found a skintrack that wove through the alder on the main NE slope and eventually joined up with the NE shoulder. (I don't think this would be a great route to follow if you're concerned about significant avalanche danger / overhead hazard.)

Going up, I felt some small, isolated pockets of soft slab formation, (guessing windslab) as there was evidence of drifting and visual signs of snow transport all the way up.

We transitioned at the headwall before the lower peak and started skiing down.

Fantastic turns! Light and fluffy turns basically all the way to the bottom. No instabilities observed at all. Seems like a solid base for all the new snow we will be getting this week.

Be careful descending the alder ditch/roadcut at the bottom of the slope -- lots of holes and tiger traps to catch your boot/ski on.