May 2, 2003, Chinook Pass

Charles and I headed to Chinook Pass today hoping for some nice spring skiing.  We got the nice spring weather but not the nice spring corn.  Chinook Pass is still closed so we climbed up along Chinook Creek from just beyond Cayuse Pass then up the west ridge of Naches to the false summit. We descended to the south.  The snow here consisted of about 1" of semifrozen crust over more than a foot of mush;  most turns broke through the crust.  This was not a good thing.  Next headed north over the ridge to the north bowl.  A steeper pitch here had supportable crust for a few good turns.  Lower the crust was weaker..  Lastly we checked the northwest shoulder only to find more of the same.  This snow needs some consolidation.  At least the views and weather were nice.