January 5, 2003, Mt Snoqualmie
1/5/03
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2741
1
Rebelling against long drives, Ned_Flanders and I decided to explore the southwest side of Mt Snoqualmie, fully expecting to find challenging snow down low with the hope of a few inches up higher. The goals were to sniff out the direct ascent from Alpental and of course to make some turns. We succeeded on all fronts.
The route we took parallels the massive slide path (Martin Volken calls it the Phantom slide path in his wonderful "Backcountry Skiing Snoqualmie Pass") running clear down to the valley floor; it's visible from the road by the Sahale Ski Club parking lot. Shortly up valley along the summer snow lake trail is a deep drainage; we climbed just up valley from this, navigating the cliffs and staying out of the drainage itself. An alternate route is to climb just down valley of the stream, between it and the slide path. Snow was as expected, rain effected but not super mushy down low, hardening to several inches of fresh snow above a stable base by 4700-5000ft. Would have been nice skiing had we skied down around 2pm, instead we sat on top for about 30 minutes too long. The southwest facing snow began to harden after being warmed in the sun, but still decent in spots, thick in others. We decended directly down the slide path. Below about 4000ft, the snow was trying, thick reforming crust and simply heavy deep corn.
Random musings: the valley and snoqualmie pass were filled with fog up to 4200 ft or so, clear above. Snow pack was exceedingly stable, and skiing decent up high. Given the clear cold nights and sunny days predicted the possibility for good, steep descents exists, provided you can ski down during the crucial few hours (something like west face of Red Mtn). I suspect sun sheltered, north facing slopes will hold a stable few inches of powder for a few days.
The route we took parallels the massive slide path (Martin Volken calls it the Phantom slide path in his wonderful "Backcountry Skiing Snoqualmie Pass") running clear down to the valley floor; it's visible from the road by the Sahale Ski Club parking lot. Shortly up valley along the summer snow lake trail is a deep drainage; we climbed just up valley from this, navigating the cliffs and staying out of the drainage itself. An alternate route is to climb just down valley of the stream, between it and the slide path. Snow was as expected, rain effected but not super mushy down low, hardening to several inches of fresh snow above a stable base by 4700-5000ft. Would have been nice skiing had we skied down around 2pm, instead we sat on top for about 30 minutes too long. The southwest facing snow began to harden after being warmed in the sun, but still decent in spots, thick in others. We decended directly down the slide path. Below about 4000ft, the snow was trying, thick reforming crust and simply heavy deep corn.
Random musings: the valley and snoqualmie pass were filled with fog up to 4200 ft or so, clear above. Snow pack was exceedingly stable, and skiing decent up high. Given the clear cold nights and sunny days predicted the possibility for good, steep descents exists, provided you can ski down during the crucial few hours (something like west face of Red Mtn). I suspect sun sheltered, north facing slopes will hold a stable few inches of powder for a few days.