Jan 3-4, 2008, Tatoosh

Tough going in the Tatoosh over the weekend. NP hotline estimated Longmier Gate opening between 10 and 11 Sat morning. It didn't happen until after 12:00. Nevertheless, we were skinning out of Narada Parking lot at around 1:00. Trail breaking was brutal. Deep, deep snow with about 12"-18" inches of kind of heavy soft slabby on top of a crust with soft underneath. Given the lateness of the day we decided just to climb to the top of the ridge above Narada and try to get in some skiing. Downhill was very slow and a bit challenging, with a decent angle required to get anything going. We did 3 laps then headed to the car - after dark of course.

We stayed in our usual room at the Nisqually Lodge in Ashford. In all the years we've been going up to Paradise this is the most snow we've ever seen in town. Must have been close to 3' in the open areas.

Sunday we left Narada parking lot at 10:00, with a group of trail breakers heading to the Castle ahead of us. We went ahead and climbed our track to the ridge again and skied to the lake before climbing up to the Castle. Ski down was again challenging, but some decent snow was found on more nw aspects. Snow in the gut was atrocious punchy wind slab. We worked our way down the basin that outlets to Louise Lake, staying pretty much out of the open flats. Mostly lousy skiing, with pockets of not so lousy. Finished the day over the ridge and down the steeper pitches across the roads. A group of 4 were finishing with Narada Face as we arrived. Good stability, but it didn't look that fun.

We left at dark and drove to Renton in a snow storm.