TR Replies
Hmm. I didn't experience anything quite that nice.
Hey I thought it was pretty fun. One core shot, but that's what ptex candles are for.
Trail was fine on the way up, seemed to be a little icier on the way down but no problems, its not anywhere near as bad as paradise gets. Easily skinnable from treeline or a little before.
Don't trust the ice on the creek crossings. My wife ended up with wet boots on the first one.
Don't trust the ice on the creek crossings. My wife ended up with wet boots on the first one.
How is the trail? Any ice? How far did you walk? Thanks
Please remove the other topicDone.
Sounds like a good day out.
Nice to meet you today Silas!
Here are some pics from the day:
Halfway up the front side:
Skiing down the front side:
Skinning up Gemini:
Backside from Gemini
Near...
Here are some pics from the day:
Halfway up the front side:
Skiing down the front side:
Skinning up Gemini:
Backside from Gemini
Near...
Way to make the most of Plan B when making plans for turns at MNRP!
We went for a short stroll on foot at pass level this afternoon. FS roads are quite snowy (6-8" of dry fluff atop 2-4" of very consolidated and supportable snow), but forests are almost barren in spots (snow on the trees). Cold and beautiful at sunset; unexpectedly good day out.
Agree 100%. Toured up to the top of the ridge at Central today, and honestly the trip up was more enjoyable than the trip down. The snow quality was superb and the temperature and views were great, but there just wasn't enough depth. Hit a lot of sharks on the trip down. Going to need some TLC on the base now.
author=Wad link=topic=32850.msg136891#msg136891 date=1417306151]I somehow screwed up and posted this without the trip report. Probably a good thing because it was nothing more than a massive pile of sarcasm directed at the park service for having the gate closed on a partly sunny holiday weekend with minimal snow on the road.
We hiked up to Cougar rock and skied the pavement. Woo hoo!
Thanks for lowering our expectations in the parking lot jake! With recalibrated sense of conditions we took two runs and had great fun.
Excellent snow quality, but it was so light things are not at all knocked down/filled in. (But I imagine reports from places with a base will come back glowing later today). Name of the game was to go fast and not make wide turns. Slow down, and the brush gets ya.
Excellent snow quality, but it was so light things are not at all knocked down/filled in. (But I imagine reports from places with a base will come back glowing later today). Name of the game was to go fast and not make wide turns. Slow down, and the brush gets ya.
i strongly recommend packing an actual golf club and hitting shots while on the skiis !
More pics and a link to our GPX track on my blog: http://bobbyandmaura.com/snowshoeing/heliotrope-ridge
author=Bobby Marko link=topic=32752.msg136678#msg136678 date=1416719307]
It was my dog Latigo's first time chasing powder. I think he's addicted now.
That's one lucky pooch! Thanks for the TR.
author=Roger Strong link=topic=32620.msg136503#msg136503 date=1416152704]
Love your TR's Kristina!!! what a wonderful icy playground we have all over the Cascades right now...decent snow to be found with rewards of moderate to steep ice climbing.
Ha! Thanks Roj! Great seeing you last weekend!
I think Carl doesn't really work and skis every day and just sends in the best shots and video's.
Pictures of my turns always take me 5 minutes of photo shopping to even see! His are shining in the sun - all by themselves ::)
Pictures of my turns always take me 5 minutes of photo shopping to even see! His are shining in the sun - all by themselves ::)
Wooohoo!! that looked like so much fun! I wish my monday was that rad...
How do you always know where the good skiing is at? Did you acquire that sense, or were you just born with it? ;)
Nice to meet you! Small world... If not for me intensifying the bright colors, you'd probably have never seen yourself! Still getting better every day. Today the run of the day was just hiking under the lift and skiing down to Emerald. All powder - no rocks (to speak of). Big, complicated storm coming.
Lots of snow - then rain - then freezing temps. Should make for a variable and exciting Thanksgiving weekend at Whistler. My guess is that if it doesn't rain off too much, they will...
Lots of snow - then rain - then freezing temps. Should make for a variable and exciting Thanksgiving weekend at Whistler. My guess is that if it doesn't rain off too much, they will...
I agree with dandedj - when we got a visibility window, the skiing was excellent from 7000'! Went back up for another lap, but it got socked in on the way down.
Hey! that's us in the bottom photo!!...nice to meet u-ish!!...
I was pleasantly surprised by the snow quality. Apparently, based on talking in the parking lot with someone who had also come on Sunday, the snow had settled and dried out a bit overnight. Of course we were greedy enough, lured by the fun turns on our first few runs, that we managed to stay long enough to see how the snow skied when wet as the warming and precip started mid-afternoon. With plenty of folks out and about, it was still not at all hard to find untracked snow on front side runs.
It would be perfect if they got just enough snow to cover up the debris and avoid any serious core shots but not enough to open Alpental followed by a solid freeze and then a series of 3,500 foot freezing level storms.
It sure would be nice if they never ran the lifts I really don't care much for lift served skiing on big snow days. Powder gets tracked out in less than an hour's time. Hence; why I call it Powder Hour.
Here's a few pictures of the early season alpine play. The skinning is under Harmony Chair and the skiing was on the lower Saddle. Looks like there will be a lot of snow for Thanksgiving Weekend.
Meanwhile, across the valley, Alpy was riding fine above 4000 or so feet. Below 4000 feet the brushpack was healthy, and delivered crotch shots of the Cascades' finest: alder, mountain ash, western hemlock, huckleberry, etcetera, but at least kept us off the local geology.
Someone really needs to see about adding about 1500' to the base of those areas--or the top of summit west/central/hyak.
Someone really needs to see about adding about 1500' to the base of those areas--or the top of summit west/central/hyak.
Glad you got after it. Gradual warming ahead and then cooling back down- great base building weather!
We also experienced 12-15m cracks half way between the top of hogs and the top of 7th. Despite the cracks, trees, shrubs, and everything else anchored the snow well. Another large storm might pose problems without consolidation.
Fun powder skiing though!
Fun powder skiing though!
Snow quality was pretty decent up high. There were some deeper pockets of powder in places and some sections of exposed ice that were easy to avoid. As we got closer to the trees it started to get pretty thin, but we managed to ski pretty much all the way down to the trees.
Wind Loading was good cause it made the snow deeper ::)
The new storm snow was moving around a little...I heard there was a slide out by 3-way...
The new storm snow was moving around a little...I heard there was a slide out by 3-way...
Nice!!!! how was the wind loading on N/NW aspects Carl?
Wish we saw you today Silas!!
A couple observations to be wary of for anyone going out tomorrow before it warms up;
ridges at 5,800ft (top of 7th Heaven) were heavily wind loaded on N & NE aspects...as suspected, shooting cracks propagated 12-15m in each direction on top of the 40 plus degree slopes....320cm probe didn't touch the ground which wasn't a surprise with the constant SW wind from this storm. Skied NW aspect in the trees for the first run, then West on t...
A couple observations to be wary of for anyone going out tomorrow before it warms up;
ridges at 5,800ft (top of 7th Heaven) were heavily wind loaded on N & NE aspects...as suspected, shooting cracks propagated 12-15m in each direction on top of the 40 plus degree slopes....320cm probe didn't touch the ground which wasn't a surprise with the constant SW wind from this storm. Skied NW aspect in the trees for the first run, then West on t...
An avalanche on Pacific Crest. Now that's something.
The way I would describe Stevens today is 12" overnight, over 10" new Friday night with 27" total solid base = deep! There is a reason that the Powderchaser's photo of the day was from Stevens today, it was the place to be.
Tim's KIRO piece:
http://m.kirotv.com/news/news/snow-strands-drivers-excites-skiers-snoqualmie-pas/njDNz/
http://m.kirotv.com/news/news/snow-strands-drivers-excites-skiers-snoqualmie-pas/njDNz/
Good to see you guys up there!
We took a slightly-soggy sojurn to Meany, as Susan had never been. Fun way to get back into the swing of touring. One lap down the bunny hill there was good enough for us (lots of plants) before skiing back to the sno-park. Burlier 4wd vehicles tracked up the road as we left.
Continued snow at the Summit led us to take a lap there on the way home. Best early-season conditions I've seen there.
Snow's a little upside-down (...
We took a slightly-soggy sojurn to Meany, as Susan had never been. Fun way to get back into the swing of touring. One lap down the bunny hill there was good enough for us (lots of plants) before skiing back to the sno-park. Burlier 4wd vehicles tracked up the road as we left.
Continued snow at the Summit led us to take a lap there on the way home. Best early-season conditions I've seen there.
Snow's a little upside-down (...
A warm up could be good for consolidating the base
Summit at Snoqualmie Facebook page says they did some mulching this year, that explains why it skied so well with minimal snow this year compared to last year. Thanks for saving me 3hrs of driving! Posted a reply here instead of modifying the original post, don't want to blank it out.
Beautiful video. Amazing that you guys can do all of that climbing after eating one egg. :)
Nice going Silas, we are getting a nice storm, and Mission is opening tomorrow with limited terrain. There was six or seven inches of great snow about dark.