TR Replies

Great photos Kam,
It was nice meeting you up there on the ridge.

Gus: it was nice to meet you too! yeah, Kelvin and i had a blast on our new skis. with a 135mm shovel and 108mm underfoot, it was hard to go wrong with the conditions we had on Sunday. ;D

Nice photos Kam and crew, we were at Paradise too but because of family obligations (no not the super bowl) we had to be back in town...

2/6/05 9:43pm

eric

It was great to be back on new snow!

We pretty much booted down the summer trail around Pan Point. Considering the conditions, this seemed the most reasonable option.

2/6/05 9:32pm

Scotsman

February 7, 2005, Alpental

It never ceases to amaze me as to how good it can be at MRNP! I too was sking the east facing bowl of Mazama Ridge. It was great.

I dug a Rucschblock on the lee-east facing slope on one of the steeper areas and got a score of 4(the slope slide easily on the first jump) and I certainly considered the steeper slopes prone for a slab with about 10-12 " of new on a rain crust.As a result we stayed on the 30 deg and less slopes mainly.

As a comparison, did anybody else dig a...

2/6/05 9:22pm

cascadesfreak

Daniel- glad you got out this morning; thanks for the invite, I would've tried to get out if I had been back in town last night...all that fresh snow sure looked nice while flying over the mountains on the descent to Sea-Tac Airport this morning.
--Chris

2/6/05 7:58pm

jimjar

I was asking myself the same thing while driving in to work.

2/6/05 7:05pm

gusk

Just checked the Paradise cam, what am I doing here at work today?

2/6/05 6:40pm

tomtom

Pat, Rob, Mugs, Eva, and I were among the crowd (well, at least until my "wardrobe malfunction"). Here's Eva doing it Austrian-style.

2/6/05 6:36pm

Michael

Corinne and I went up to Alpental on Sunday. Got over a foot of great unconsolidated powder on the upper bowl. Further down, still great snow, but a lot of navigation skills were required to avoid the rocks.
We were surprised to see how many people were at the parking lot - most people went up to snow lake -seems like everyone wants to get every bit of snow they can get :-)

2/6/05 5:52pm

JMor

Nice photos Kam and crew, we were at Paradise too but because of family obligations (no not the super bowl) we had to be back in town early. Did manage to come home with huge smiles on our faces due to the super snow in various bowls. 8)

2/6/05 5:44pm

JMor

Nice photos, thanks for sharing :D

2/6/05 8:09am

ericd

Your pictures look really familiar, kam. I think I saw both you and maybe Gus too at the top of that same bowl - when about ten folks showed up all at the same time, then scraped all the snow off that short slot through the trees before all had a great run lower down. Someone was shooting video down near the bottom. I wonder if that video will show up on this TR thread?

What a great day! I think the best snow was actually lower down in the trees where the sn...

2/6/05 7:38am

gusk

Great photos Kam,
It was nice meeting you up there on the ridge. I had read about your skis on your website, and thought it quite interesting when they pulled up next to me above that eastern bowl.

it was dumping pretty hard, and pretty wet down around Paradise. I was almost talked into skiing a run down to the road way below paradise, but didn't want to push my luck.

What a great day,
-Gus

2/6/05 6:44am

andyski

Dang. I was among those turned back by the wind and the mirror crust on Pan Point (as well as the elongated drama of some very inexperienced snowshoers clownishly attempting the switchback up Pan Point. A lot of cotton and no gear made for a very unsettling scene. Hat's off to those who very generously and ably helped out :)). The snow in the meadows was sweet, making up for the lack of slope angle. Next time I'll tough it out, though. It was great to be back on new snow!
Did you descen...

2/6/05 1:16am

Daniel

I'm not sure when Paul and Hannah got there, but Mark, Sara and I arrived around 10:30. We had to push through deep snow to park and the Alpental/Snow Lake Trailhead lot, but it was drive able.

How the Guye? What route did you do? I was looking at that thinking of climbing options.

2/5/05 11:47pm

Eli3

pictures:

http://community.webshots.com/user/emrosenb

2/5/05 9:17pm

jhamaker

February 5, 2005, Paradise

When did you drive in?
We were on our way to climb the Tooth but parked at Guye Hut (WAC) and hit Guye Pk because the rd was not plowed or traveled yet. Were were up there at about 6:30.

2/5/05 8:57pm

philfort

I'm sure the crust would be the weak interface. But the only places we were able to get anything to move was on the lee side of obvious windlips/cornices. Windslab seemed localized and not widespread (or maybe we just chose the right aspects). Most places the snow wasn't too cohesive, and there was only 5-6 inches on the crust.

2/5/05 10:05am

Feb 5, 05, Hood Meadows Pow - the closed portion

Jeff,
Wow, those photo's look pretty nice, all things considered. I almost went today, but opted for more lame duties. As a Portlander I appreciate your Hood reports. Since the Patsies have it in the bag, and in light of your report, perhaps I will ski tomorrow and forgoe the chicken wings. Thanks.....

2/5/05 9:03am

mjt

February 5, 2005, Paradise

Had a much better than expected day around Paradise. The wind was howling, and the clouds coming in and out, so we decided against heading up to Muir, and instead did runs around Paradise valley and Mazama Ridge.

The wind had blown the snow around, so areas near ridges were scoured to ice, but most areas had about 5 inches of nice powder on a hard base. Turns were really good considering conditions lately. And it was sunny for much of the d...

2/5/05 8:59am

Sam Avaiusini

February 5, 2005, Paradise

One of us really should have packed a camera! I just didn't expect the day to turn out so well... :)

2/5/05 6:56am

Paul Belitz

Sidestepping doesn't count. ;)

2/5/05 4:49am

tardigrade

looks like im going to have to try. Its only a 5 dollar ticket and it goes towards a good cause so im not to bend out about it.

2/5/05 4:45am

CascadeClimber

Hannah did great considering this was her fifth time on skis ever, and her first runs ever on wild snow. :)

First runs on wild snow?

;D

-L

2/5/05 4:24am

CascadeClimber

Just below Moon Rocks, I talked to two people who had been up on Gibraltar Ledges, and they said that up to Camp Muir there was even less of the newer snow left.

Eh, well, not quite onto the ledges. We had a little route finding issue in the dark and ended up climbing a steep, icy line (which we initially thought was Gib Chute) directly to the base of the beehive.

It was nice to meet you, Charles.

-Loren

2/5/05 3:52am

silaswild

Glad to hear that sometimes they are lenient, 'cause a friend of mine bought a day pass and forgot to put it out at Gold Creek last year. He sent in a photocopy and explanation and got no sympathy. Sometimes you win, sometimes not?

2/5/05 3:50am

Paul Belitz

If you guys get me your emails, I'll send a link to the videos. "My username" @gmail.com.

I can't do dawn patrols; dusk patrols are an option if Alpental is skiable. :)

2/5/05 3:27am

mjt

A foot of fresh powder over 3" of solid base made for surprisingly good skiing on what would normally be the groomed runs.

We ran into Mark@/mjt (is that correct?) and his friend Daniel. We had a great run down Sessel, despite the snow snake that grabbed my ski and put me in one of my more spectacular cartwheels. Guess going fast on baseless snow is a bad idea after all....but it was still great fun. I feel sorry for the shrubbery that I killed.

2/5/05 2:42am

Daniel

I saw at the bottom of your TR that you got a ticket from the Fee Demo people. I hear they can be pretty lenient. A friend of mine got out of it once simply by buying the pass. If you had one in your car, maybe you can fax it to them or something. It couldn't hurt to call.

Thanks for the TR and pics. Looks like a good day out for views at least.

Hey Cass, you're back from Europe? How was it? When's the slide show? ;-)

2/5/05 2:36am

Daniel

Hi Paul! I was good to meet you today! The snow sure was nice, even if the coverage was a little thin. Let's hope the snow keeps up! If you get a chance, I would love to see the video that you shot. I have a few pics that I'll post later too.

Have fun tomorrow, and I'll look forward to the TR. I'm now thinking dawn patrol on Monday if the snow keeps up, so if you're interested (or anyone else) send me some email.

Pictures:

2/4/05 11:45pm

skykilo

Excellent Charles, sounds like you've got it pretty dialed. 8)

2/4/05 10:18pm

Charles

February 4, 2005, Broken Top

Awww, I liked the step corn idea. It probably wasn't very "step" by your standards, and certainly not "really step", but I guess that's an advantage of never really skiing anything "really step" - it doesn't take much to give me that "stepping out" feeling!

2/4/05 9:31am

Jeff Huber

Hi Cem, I always enjoy reading your reports. I thought I'd respond to let you know the photo you are trying to post you did not post properly. It appears you are trying to link to the photo by providing the file's path on your computer. This will not work. You must first upload the photo to the Internet. A free and easy way to do this is to go to http://www.biglines.com/photos.php. Once you've uploaded your photo there (you do not need to register there first), right-click on the photo, s...

2/4/05 1:59am

alpentalcorey

February 3, 2005, Nisqually Chutes, MRNP

I decided to leave it since the root word it 'gallant'. It's a linguistic form of civil disobedience.

Was this to tempt us also? ;)

2/4/05 1:07am

Kenji

The snowpack as a whole is solid, thanks for the rain we had. My concern for tomorrow would be the steep frozen surface in the chute. Depending on how much new snow they get, it could be hard bare crust, a nice few inches new on firm, or too much new to slide off. Also, getting up Pan face may be tricky. Everything under the new snow would be frozen solid.

Be carefull, have fun. I might be up on Paradise Gl on Sunday.

2/4/05 12:49am

GregSimon

February 3, 2005, Nisqually Chutes, MRNP

I was thinking of heading up there tomorrow (Saturday). I've never done the Nisqually chute in winter. Any concerns about stability/avalanche risk on Thurs? Thanks.

2/3/05 5:12am

skykilo

And just in case anyone wondered, by step corn, I meant REALLY steep corn. Yeah, that's it.

2/3/05 2:58am

skykilo

I think it's only fair for Amar to cite it considering I made a point of editing the others. Good eye, Amar! I was actually aware of it, but I decided to leave it since the root word it 'gallant'. It's a linguistic form of civil disobedience.

2/3/05 2:15am

cascadesfreak

Nice pics; good to hear there is some snow left somewhere in the Snoqalmie area; kinda crazy that all those rocky areas on the northern side of the mountain are usually still fully snow-covered in mid June.

2/3/05 2:01am

David_Coleman

I'd say that's petty to be complaining about that typo compared to some of the spelling both you and I have seen.

2/2/05 10:48pm

Amar Andalkar

I made one more edit because I noticed two spelling errors upon review. .... Nevertheless, I aspire to some day achieve a certain level of mastery in both ski mountaineer-errantry AND scholarship, so I loathe to see the typos remain.

Um, Sky, I hate to go around correcting anyone's spelling, but since you've brought the subject up, "gallavanting" is still misspelled. The preferred spelling is gallivanting, with galavanting as a v...

2/2/05 7:42pm

kam

tardigrade: welcome! thanks for the post. glad to hear you found some snow. your photos are nice, and way to be resouceful with those "poles"!

kam

2/2/05 7:33pm

skykilo

Hooray for step corn, whatever the duration!

2/2/05 9:32am

skykilo

January 30, 2005, Paradise

Here is a photo from a highly esteemed bushwhacker-errant who bears the seal of the Rhinoceros, a strong sturdy beast if ever there was one. His celebrated sorties and picaresque adventures canvass the Cascades in a most inimitable fashion. Thanks for the photo, Dr. John Roper!

David,
You remember correctly, there was a photo with Jeff and me drinking Tecates at the car after a climb of the Kennedy...

2/1/05 7:31am

mej

The computers in the UW Atmospheric Sciences department have cool data sets of weather readings taken by airliners on their approach to Sea-Tac. The readings are taken very often, giving quite good resolution as to the vertical structure of the atmosphere. From this information you could figure out where cloud decks may start or end, although I need to look into it more to find out exactly what obervations they take. Also, I do not know where (or even if) on the open internet they can be retr...

2/1/05 6:29am

Larry_Trotter

January 30, 2005, Paradise

JibberD - I was thinking exactly the same thing... How can we tell where the cloud layer ends? I want to try to research that a little. I am sure it must be buried in weather reports somewhere.... especially reports for aviators. I can receive weather channels on my Motorola FRS radio, Model T6300. I never paid much attention to it, but now I think I will check it out more.

We were flying somewhat East across the North side of Rainier. All of Little Tahoma an...

2/1/05 2:02am

David_Lowry

No, the Mexican equivalent of PBR! I vaguely recall a photo of Sky holding one in one of the TR's on his site- before it was refurbished.

Of course, I could be going off on another flight of fancy...

2/1/05 1:47am

gregL

High-end truth serum derived from blue agave?

2/1/05 12:25am

David_Lowry

PBR? What happened to Tecate? ;D

2/1/05 12:09am

gregL

That's what I love about this forum . . . the erudition, the literary references, the self-deprecating humor . . . any idiot can post misspelled IM-like blather on TGR or Biglines . . .

1/31/05 11:34pm

Sam Avaiusini