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Nice story. I've been wanting to ski in the olympic mtn's for a long time but haven't. It looks like a nice area.

The snow on Stuart's upper slopes were not nearly as full as in years past. From what I was told, the wind had blown much of it away (there was much, much more a few weeks ago). I was amazed to see how much the wind could affect a snowpack like that.  
Nice Blitz!  That sounds like the exact day of skiing we had in the Chutes on Saturday.  Serious hero corn -- glad someone else got some of it.  We did the more "adventurous" right-handed exit at the bridge -- we learned that the left side is the way to go...
It is very bumpy and folded land.
We hit the trees at the bottom of the run, I think part of it is the terrain down there.

Way to go! That couloir looked nice on my way to stuart. Did you happen to see my helmet  >:(?

BTW thanks for the tracks if you were the one who made them. It was a nice track.

That road did rule. I love going that fast. The trail was a kick too!!! So, so fast. We have some footage of the trail skiing, but the camera malfunctioned on my brother and I's mad dash down the road. That bump/dip lower down was quite the hit.  
Stepped "around the corner" on Sunday into the Silver Peak basin after topping out Ollalie meadows on nordic gear.  Of course the coverage is awesome.  I was sort of "plane-ing" on the crust for a comical descent, trying to find occasional patches of sun-softened surface for hang-on snowplow turns.  It's going to be tough if it gets super-cold without any fresh.
I skied the south facing couloir on Lundin just before noon. I saw some people decending Red while others were going up.
Similar snow conditions on Lundin as you described on Red. I thought it was just to early in the day for corn, but perhaps it just didn't get warm enough with that wind.
It was still a beautiful day to be in the mtns.
What a difference a day makes, today without wind the SW to SE slopes were all great corn skiing (at least up to 5600')  Made up for yesterday's disappointment, tho it was pretty nice corn for February, too.
did the exact same tour today. a little less sunshine, but plenty fun. that 400' vertical section is really pretty fun if you drop in right under table.
Good call for the day. I think we saw you guys up on the top on one of your laps. We headed out a little earlier than you guys and the woods were actually pretty turnable at around 2:30. Pretty efficient little clearcut tour when the conditions are right.
Looks like a great trip. Nice job!

But remember, Charles will personally come to your house and kick your butt if you post more than one photo in you trip report...now ya know...
  For those of you who would like to see the photologue of our Mazama Dome tour, check out: http://gallery.telemen.ca/main.php?g2_view=core.ShowItem&g2_itemId=616

Enjoy,

Bob Wiebe
p.s. to the telemarkers who gave me a spare heelpiece when I broke my splitboard binding--thanks!
below the chutes, we stuck close to the east side moraine since we didn't have an idea of how well filled in the lower glacier was and didn't bring any glacier gear.
Did see tracks further out from some folks who must've skied the glacier proper a day or two before.
It certainly looked filled in enough to ski right down the toe of the glacier.

Sweet!  

Was the lower nisqually down to the bridge pretty well filled in, or did you have to dodge crevasses?  
Randonnee is so right about the usual conditions.  And even on a very rare day of OK snow and adequate coverage, it is still almost all (lengthy) tour and few turns!
I have been meaning to check that area out, it looks like there is some great spots if you know were to look. Don't worry your secret is safe.
It was great to meet you. Glad you had a good day- I admired your tracks. It was nice, sunshine and blue skies and long views.

That 1989 Ski Doo Tundra snowmoblie is a single cylinder, 250 cc displacement. It was light and had a long track for 1989, so I purchased it new (for $1948.00) just to go skiing. It is geared like a tractor and only does about 35 mph top speed. I have pulled huge sleds and have towed 5 skiers uphill on about 10 miles of road. It is certainly a relic when compared...
The pics give it away, but I won't give you guys up.
How is the snow conditions?  We plan to ski there tommorrow...

thanks!  



The usual 'the good, the bad, and the ugly'.  :)
The ugly being the cat track that I hope and trust was from the monthly Snotel check. (The Washington Snow Survey Office has a special permit to operate a cat on Road 4315.) It didn't make it to the site in any case, but left 1 foot deep tracks with now frozen solid vertical walls, plus frozen chunks of sno...
Which volcano in Southern Oregon? ???
Assuming you mean 2006, that's some impressive coverage along side the highway. That's the way I remember it as a kid growing up in Roseburg. I got some big plans for spring/summer trips to the area this year. Might even be able to work in a brief visit with my folks down in Rosebutt. ;)
How is the snow conditions?  We plan to ski there tommorrow...

thanks!  
Great picture Larry -- spooky!
I race CityLeague up at Alpental Tuesday nights and I was there til about 11pm...clear skies the whole time, so it must have started in the wee hours as Corey suggests. ???
The snow in the backcountry near Mt. Baker has turned difficult to ski on most exposures. Difficult breakable crust except on shaded north exposures.  Up to at least 5400 feet. Today, it wasn't quite warm enough to soften it except on steep southern exposures.  If it got a little warmer then south slopes would be fine till late in the day.
It was more of a light rain.  At least it was at ~4:30am when I was coming back from work.  On the way up as it was raining I was stoked, thinking how Tuesday's nice snow would be great with another inch or two on top.  Based on the temperature gage at the summit I thought it might be snow above chair 1 (~4-4500') but obviously that proved not to be the case.  Yeah, i'm also hoping that it might be corn by the weekend.  Red mt. on Sunday anyone?

FWIW, in the after...
Anything that was wind hammered late last week, which includes a lot of open south facing stuff at Snoq from what I could see in a small sample this weekend, would have a good chance of being corn, maybe intermixed with funky breakable crust (depending on your timing).
I'm keeping my fingers crossed that we'll have south facing corn by the weekend...

Impressive choice and trip to say the least!  Anyone think south slopes in the Snoq. area will be corn like by the weekend with this sun and night time cooling?
I may finally get to escape the confines of the cubcile and the baby room for a day on Friday....any updates on snow conditions around 542 would be mucho appreciated!  Thanks.

D
Was there really heavy rain on Tuesday night?  Telemetry shows a little bit of precip early Wednesday morning, but seems like it should have been snow above about 4000ft...


That's what I thought too, but it must have poured since the powder I was skiing in Tuesday afternoon had all turned to rock.
That sounds horrible.

Pretty pictures, though!
Was there really heavy rain on Tuesday night?  Telemetry shows a little bit of precip early Wednesday morning, but seems like it should have been snow above about 4000ft...
Time to get back to Courmayeur?  Easier skiing, and lift assisted.  :)
I am simply envious.  ...need to get up there...  
Thanks to Tim for the help with posting pics and the storage space. I thought I would add that I am still concerned about large natural slides happening. The forcasted warm spell may be a blessing in disguise. It is a haunting familiar situation to Feb. 14, 1999. I am remembering roughly 300" of new snow in a month (this year it was in Jan.). My wife and I had just passed the lower arm traverse to get half a dozen turns, when we turn around and witness the "big one" from start to...
Nice pics Double_E -- I enjoyed watching Cosmo.  He must have been a riot to see coming down through the trees...

Couldn't leave out the wind noise!  That was half the fun.
Most of the snow was pretty firm.  
I don't think we sunk more than a few inches on any of the slopes above 4th crossing to Mazama ridge.

The snow on the gentle part of the "Back Bowl" had at most 6 inches of wind drifted snow on top of a fairly hard wind crust.

In the glades down Mazama ridge to Reflection lakes we found areas of wind and sun sheltered snow that was almost powder like -- but never more than about six inches deep.  

I think it's snowi...
Way to go, Toby!

Charles, no, that is a glide crack on the Chimney. It is always there early and late in the yesr.  This year, because of a few rain events, there are a lot of open and scarcely covered glide cracks in the Baker area that are usually covered with the snow depth we have.

A bit later three boarders and a skier did that line with a camera crew below.  The first boarder missed his entrance turn and slid into the crack.  Luckily he was able to catch onto the edge and ex...
Hey Tim, thanks for the great TR, complete with photo and snow details! I'm wondering if that is a partially covered avi crown in your photo, high up on the east end of Table?

Nice shot Toby!
Matt throwing up some smoke...
Was it wind packed enough to be corn on the weekend if no precip comes before then?  53 degrees at Paradise today!!
ah, i hate being a weekend warrior.

looks like this weekend will have some nice corn on herman if the weather stays constant.
Yeah, good times fer sure!!!  Nice video Marcus, I like the way you mixed in a little bit of wind noise along with the music!  



Wish I'd taken some pics of people skiing downhill, like thru the old growth maybe ... was kinna just having too much fun to bother stopping to do so.   ;D

couple more pics
Nice shot, and good job getting out in the brief weather window. Sounds like the snow was similar to what we found at Snoqualmie in higher open areas on Sunday (woods below were a fair bit nicer, but it was all good skiing except where completely wind-stripped to rain crust). Oh well, all that is changing now, time to hope for a nice storm sometime next week...
I was early enough in the pack that I was able to follow the skin track by watching to Cosmo's post holes. Thanks Cosmo.  Great high danger day.  Loved the old growth.
Nice report weekender -- good times indeed.  Skinning by braille was a fun mental exercise... ;D