Nov 11-12, 2005, Twin Sisters Range

I spent Friday and Saturday in the Twin Sisters range and was surprised by the conditions so I thought I'd share.  We took the Middle Fork Nooksack approach (as in Kearney's Classic Climbs).  On the way up we could ski starting at ~1/2 mi past the big rock pile (3000'?); on the way back we skied almost all the way to the main logging road (on ~1" of snow - we shouldn't have!).  The approach was in better shape than I've seen it - not as many alders hanging over the trail as in previous years, but all of the ditches above Daily Prairie still have running water that must be overcome with varying degrees of acrobatics).  Skied up over the base of the W. ridge of North Twin and then down into the basin between the W. ridges of the Twins.  After the trip reports from the Baker area I expected a lot more snow than we found - perhaps a foot of snow in the gulleys with lots of rocks poking out on all the ridges.  Snow consistency alternated between the bulletproof remnants of Thursday's rain and wind-transported powder.  Camped at 4500' in the last stand of large trees.  The next day we headed up towards the pass between the N. and S. Sister, but didn't want to head up the final steep slope because stability wasn't great - a soft slab at 4" released when we stepped on it for a ruschblock test, another layer a couple inches further down slid after a jump or two, and the pit slid down to the rain crust after several jumps.  Instead we lapped the mellow slopes between ~5500' and 4500' for a while.    It was hard to ski below 4500' without hitting rocks...  Here's a picture looking up at the pass between the Sisters.  I think you can get an idea of the snow depth.  Note also the huge plume coming off the N. Sister.  Wind is everything in the Sisters range!