TR Replies

January 30, 2005, Twin Lakes (Swamp Creek) Road

I was at Paradise this weekend doing Nordic Patrol. More snow is needed before skiing is feasible below the altitude of Paradise. Snow gets non-existent in the trees. Mazama Ridge has adequate coverage to ski on and the Park Service allowed snow camping there Saturday but was closing it down on Sunday. There is insufficient snow for camping at Reflection Lakes. Now if you want to snow camp you are required to go to Pebble Creek or above. There was about a half...

1/30/05 8:29pm

MW88888888

Right.

Skied Alpental Sunday top to bottom for 2,200 VF of turns.

Someone invited Krusty the Klown to the top 500 VF but darn fine corn snow from there down to the car. Not bad for late May. I mean January.

All I kept tellng myself (and Ron who was kind enough to keep smiling with me) was: "this was just like skiing the John Sherburne Ski Trail in NH in late April". Good snow, no people and warm tempitures! How Fun!

Really, it...

1/30/05 8:10pm

I was up there with my gf and was also pleasantly surprised by the weather/conditions. The upper snowfield to Camp Muir was in great shape, with plenty of snow - although a bit wind-affected - for high-powered backseat cruising. On the way down, though it had warmed up a lot and everything below 7500 was getting mushy, with increasing shrubs being exposed, and even the base crust getting scoured somewhat. The warm temps and slush will turn to ice very quickly in the next cold snap. Remedy: more...

1/30/05 7:07pm

hankj

January 30, 2005, Twin Lakes (Swamp Creek) Road

In writing my report I almost mentioned that it looked really nice over there. The most obvious ski slope between those two chunky peaks looked absolutely great. I don't know what makes for good climbing conditions, but the peaks themselves weren't terribly icy or snowy. I could easily walk on the consolidated snow underneath the new stuff w/o punching through except in sun protected areas.

The Nisqually chutes looked very nice too, but the sun was on them for a...

1/30/05 8:32am

Jim Oker

Right.

I gotta move to Bellingham. I'm amazed at how far we were able to hike at Snoqualmie without snowshoes today - up to where the old Cascade Crest Trail hit a high point near Red Mountain. It was fun. Better than stripping wallpaper for sure. We even had moments of delierium where we imagined that it would be nice to have skis.

Right.

1/30/05 6:45am

OldHouseMan

May 22, 2005, Mt. Baker Backcountry

Did you get a good look at the Tatoosh? How did the skiing/climbing look?

1/28/05 9:20am

Jeff Huber

Very funny Mark . . .

1/28/05 5:53am

DonnellyM

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Bring it on Pineapple Express!! Might as well finish the job: Melt all thee snow on thee mountains! There's always water skiing, wakeboarding, or perhaps water teli skiing! :D Oh yeah!

1/27/05 11:03pm

Paul Belitz

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Snowing lightly at 11am at the ski area today. Dust on crust, anyone?

Will report back. 8)

1/27/05 6:44am

MW88888888

January 22, 2005, Pasqualewood, New Jersey

No salt needed. I wasn't being figurative in my post, that really is my friend's backyard.

Pasqualewood, aka "Squalewood Bowl", is the brainchild of a couple of MCSA members with time on their hands and a couple of hundred vertical in their backyard. I guess the days of Fall with a Sven Saw are finally paying off.

1/26/05 10:21pm

philfort

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

at least you wont have a foot of fresh to break through like last time, eh phil? ;)

I dunno - Baker resort has gotten over an inch of rain since yesterday, at temps between 35 and 40. Could be deep on the Coleman ;)

1/26/05 7:06am

Weezzer

January 22, 2005, Pasqualewood, New Jersey

It looks to be the side trail up the south side of campgaw mt, in the ramapo's, but the stone wall with hole shot that's just way to rad, is that at or tele gear your in? your lucky they salted the roads or you still might be sitting at home

1/26/05 12:29am

alpinedave

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

at least you wont have a foot of fresh to break through like last time, eh phil? ;)

1/26/05 12:13am

Paul Belitz

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

I'm down for a day trip this weekend.

Corn? I doubt it. We have a better chance of finding fresh snow above 6k.

1/26/05 12:13am

skykilo

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

This day trip was after a January Pineapple Express, but with much more snow overall. Dave and I skied rock-hard ice from the summit all the way to the car. I wouldn't expect it to be any better now. Not that the ski mountaineering adventure isn't worth it in and of itself. I would also think that crevasse bridges should be pretty solid right now.

Although you never know...

1/26/05 12:04am

curmudgeon

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

The GC road is open to within 1/2 mile of the parking lot, but the CD might be a bit icy. The Easton route might be corn on Sunday. Neither sounds like a day trip to me.

1/25/05 11:50pm

philfort

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

I dunno... day trip Sunday? I guess the forecast means nothing now, but I know better than to go up Baker with a "Morning clouds... becoming partly sunny" :-)

Probably an ice sheet from 8000ft on down...

1/25/05 11:01pm

jimjar

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

I was thinking about it. What's your idea Phil?

1/25/05 10:51pm

philfort

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Anyone want to go find out?

Saturday: Morning clouds...becoming partly sunny. Chance of showers. Snow level 3000 feet.

Saturday night: Partly cloudy. Areas of fog after midnight. Freezing level 4500 feet.

Sunday: Mostly sunny. Areas of morning fog. Freezing level 5500 feet.

1/25/05 10:07pm

powscraper

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

All depends on whether you can hit the railslide down the pumice ridge, in which case your total awesomeness, could, like, save your life.

1/25/05 9:23pm

fleblebleb

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Care to elaborate, Tim? Epic as in terribly scary avalanche potential?

1/25/05 7:51pm

curmudgeon

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Thanks for the scouting, Steve.

I suspect that the Roman Wall might be epic!

1/25/05 5:25am

Matt C

January 25, 2005, The Pineapple and the Damage Done

Thanks SB

I've been looking for a report from Baker...sounds like all is not lost.

1/24/05 3:29pm

snoslut

January 22 and 23, 2005, MRNP

Hey Gaper Jeffey the time machine model I have is an HP-420XP. ;D And sure you can come along. Back to the winter of 99 we go!

Thanx!

1/24/05 3:38am

Scole

January 22 and 23, 2005, MRNP

Second that.

I only found the crust on the south slope. Beyond the radio tower, it seemed to go away..

1/24/05 2:57am

Jeff Huber

Good job snoslut! I'm especially impressed you were able to get out tommorow, seeing as today is the 24th. What model of time machine did you use to do this, and can I borrow your time machine so I can travel back to the Winter of 1999?

Thanks! ;D

1/24/05 2:39am

prgsmall

January 22 and 23, 2005, MRNP

Not ideal conditions for late Jan but any day out in the bc is a good day.

Agreed!!!

1/23/05 9:32pm

JimmyO

This was not surface hoar. It was a crust. At its most delicate, it was maybe a quarter inch thick, and like a fragile glass, breaking apart in plates and making a tinkling noise as it bounced downhill on top of other crust. At its thickest, it was closer to an inch thick, but never really that hard to ski through. Seemed like a melt-freeze layer due to the inversion.

Jim

1/22/05 10:42am

Jeff Huber

Ah they cut out the clip of you! Those bastards! ;-)

1/22/05 10:11am

AndyP

I'm just a little disappointed that my 5 seconds of fame ended on the channel 6 cutting room floor, beat out by some tubers and snowshoers cooking hotdogs. ;D

That is the first time I have ever seen dirt deposited on snow in the manner shown in the photo above. In more ways that one, it says a lot about the quality of the skiing right now.

1/22/05 9:37am

kam

wow, looks like Andy was skiing the knee-deep... ;D

nice photos Gaper!

1/22/05 6:14am

Monika

"could you describe the snowpack right around Snoqualmie Pass?"

Cabin Creek SnoPark right now will surprise anyone with its very good conditions on their lower trail system. The diligent trail maintenance work by the Konigsberger ski club et. al. with all the ditches dug alongside much of the trails has kept the rain from cutting through. My friends Marla, Chris and I skated about 20K at Cabin Creek after doing volunteer trail maintenance work on the lower loops at the Snoqua...

1/22/05 4:22am

Matt C

January 3, 2005, Baker area, Barometer Mtn.

that looks AWESOME!!! i LOVE skiing on rain cups in January. i hope the conditions at mount baker are as GOOD as hood!!!

1/21/05 9:53pm

Telemon

I've found a place to store my outdoor pictures. Here is one of many beautiful shots from that trip.

1/21/05 3:28pm

Larry_R

Charles and Randy,

There were a few bare spots on Rd 4315, mostly higher up; more snow lower actually. I was able to ski all the way from the ridge top (~5150 ft elv.) to the valley floor at the time however. In some spots the coverage was down to a few inches. Had to walk part of the road higher up.

Since I was there last it has continued to be exceptionally warm, and I would not be surprised if significant portions of the road are now melted out, or will be after this next period...

1/21/05 12:01am

Jason_H.

I've kayaked the waptus. It is a beautiful river. Thanks for the report...

1/20/05 10:55pm

Randito

January 15, 2005, Hatchery Creek weird stuff

Thanks for the info. -- I sure hope there is enough new snow to make it hard to follow the trail (queue man of la mancha soundtrack) ;D

1/20/05 10:47pm

Charles

Yep, it looks you all are right about the Alpental 4300' readings. The strange thing is I wondered about that and so I randomly clicked one of the 10-day archives, and it looked very consistent. It appears that if I had chosen just about any other archived page I would have seen that erratic pattern.

1/20/05 10:37pm

Charles

Thanks for the report Larry. How much snow was left down around the snopark elevation (if any)? Also, if you got a look, could you describe the snowpack right around Snoqualmie Pass?

1/20/05 10:34pm

Charles

Randy, with the ~2 feet of snow we had, the trail was easy to follow. Based on LarryR's report from this week, it should be even easier to follow now - if there is any snow at all. With 5+ feet of snow the trail would be harder to follow, especially from the trailhead, over the high point, and down to near the flats along the Waptus River. I have done it once with a hefty snowpack, and the navigation was challenging because the relief is small in there, but we did it with just 7.5 min maps, no G...

1/20/05 8:30pm

Randito

Thanks for the report Charles.. How hard is it to follow the trail? I'm planning on leading a WSTC trip out there in mid-Feb (hopefully there will be some new snow by then) and I'm wondering if it's worthwhile to scout it first and collect GPS waypoints -- I've hiked the trail in the summer and it seems like it should be OK, but following a trail in winter can be tricky.

1/20/05 8:22pm

Randito

How was the coverage and snow surface on the logging roads? Where there large bare spots?

1/20/05 9:14am

mej

Could that "thin icy crust" have been surface hoar? I noticed considerable amounts growing on the 15th. Very nice on top of the light, deep pow on runs down the north side of the ridge.

1/20/05 1:12am

JimmyO