January 15, 2003, Red Mountain

With the stable weather and snowpack, we set our sights on something steep.  After reading the NWAC's discussion of lingering instabilities and special caution on north facing slopes, we chose Red Mountain near Snoqualmie Pass and it's steep southwest facing slope.  Arriving at the pass, we were surprised to see high clouds, which as Allen pointed out were a blessing.  Below about 4700ft was a solid suncrust on all aspects we encountered (west and mostly south, nothing north or east) thickest on slopes with the most exposure to the sun, but still present in the thick old growth.  Above was perhaps a foot of mostly unconsolidated snow overlaying the thick crust from last week.  This was also about the elevation we crossed over Red's southwest ridge from a predominantly south facing slope to a more western one, and the change in snow conditions were a result of gaining elevation and changing aspect.  We didn't descend below 4700 ft on the western slope, so I'm not completely sure which was more dominant.  Deeming the snow stable, we climbed to the summit, enjoyed the view and descended.  The top 1000ft were enormously enjoyable, a very slight, but not hard crust overlaying the recent snow.  The crust was certainly noticeable when turning, but didn't have a large effect on our enjoyment.  It was sunny when we were skiing down, and this crust has probably since strengthened.  As we moved back to south facing and descended, the snow changed to full on breakable death crust.  In the forest closer to the valley floor it was significantly thinner.

Coverage in the trees was manageable.  Down logs are certainly still obvious but covered.  By this weekend, anything sun exposed will probably have a sun crust, but with luck north facing slopes will still be nice.