TR Replies
I've kayaked the waptus. It is a beautiful river. Thanks for the report...
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
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.
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?
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...
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.
How was the coverage and snow surface on the logging roads? Where there large bare spots?
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.
I also went to Heather Ridge along with chrispy and annie. I didn't post before because, let's face it, what good is our old data now?
We just went up to the high tower, did not go to Skyline. Our pit there facing the highway was not to ground, although close, as we hit that crusty layer, I'd say five feet of snow. We did shovel shear and ski stomp. Two feet plus of really soft stuff. Shovel shear really depended on how you did it. There was a la...
We just went up to the high tower, did not go to Skyline. Our pit there facing the highway was not to ground, although close, as we hit that crusty layer, I'd say five feet of snow. We did shovel shear and ski stomp. Two feet plus of really soft stuff. Shovel shear really depended on how you did it. There was a la...
The grooming was something I've rarely seen before -- I'm speculating that it might have something to do with the low-snowpack this season and the fact that the Gunnar Hagen race was being held on Sunday. While the course for this race normally uses the cabin creek loops -- perhaps they groomed the Amabalis Mtn road as a backup plan in case of a big melt before the race. Whether it gets groomed again this season (or even if there is snow to groom) remains to be...
I never knew that they groomed the trail to the top! do you know how often that may occur??
Great photos as always, Kam! I added them to the video, hope you don't mind. ;)
hey Paul. no worries. btw, nice video!
Great photos as always, Kam! I added them to the video, hope you don't mind. ;)
The students.washington.edu server is unfortunately down, first time it's happened in the past two years. I hope it'll be back online quickly.
The students.washington.edu server is unfortunately down, first time it's happened in the past two years. I hope it'll be back online quickly.
Why is someone carrying wands? ???
RAD! ;D
Actually, we were going to use them to mark features to look out for given the flat light. Problem being that Kam was the one carrying them...
I've seen the same thing you've described, Garth, looking in winter towards the Oly's. At the top of an inversion the Olympics appeared upside down as mesas riding on the top of narrow pillars. Oh wait....maybe I was high at the time. ;)
Why is someone carrying wands? ???
...ahhhh... yeah, wands. right. oh, i had planned to use them as markers for a beacon search, but it never happened. yeah, that's right, for a beacon search. :)
but Sky's reason sounds more believeable...
well, we were in the same low snowpack yet high avalanche danger dilemma. While driving up from Hood River (where it was 25 degrees and grey) we broke out of the clouds and on a spur of the moment decided to go to Cooper Spur. And it was much better than expected. Mostly it was the unexpected sunshine :) and 35 degrees but the skiing wasn't all bad. A little crusty up top and a little soft at the bottom but we were on skis all the way up.
time to do the snow dance...
time to do the snow dance...
To magically turn the rain into powder, Phil!
I think it's actually a function of the kamera ( ;) ) and the photographer, but the jacket doesn't hurt!
Nice video (and nice music choice too, brought back memories of the mid 90s). I really liked the still of you jumping in the bright orange jacket--that jacket is really photogenic in the low light.
I was up there on Jan 15th (on snowboard and traveling with snowshoes of all things ... ) The wallowing upwards with snowshoes was unpleasant in the areas where the crust wasn't holding up, and I envied the AT and tele skiers who passed us (frequently) on the way up. But the snow probably proved to be better snowboard snow on that day after all so at least some of the suffering was justified. On a snowboard you could just flatten the crust and the 4" made a good turn surface.
I dug a pi...
I dug a pi...
Nice. And to think I spent the day taking a truckload of stuff to the dump.
Amar is right that the 4300' temp at Alpental is erratic and we should have put a reminder at the top of the NWAC data file some time ago. We will do it today. The weather station is at the bottom of chair 2.
I think the progression at Stevens is real though. The was really warm air aloft (look at Baker and Paradise telemetry) and cold air at the surface and trapped in Eastern Washington. At the passes, cold air from the east kept the surface below freezing, but allowed the air aloft to warm, and hence freezing rain.
&n...
&n...
After reading your TR and knowing the avy conditions and pouring through my limited guidebook library, I planned on heading to tour the Howson Creek trail in the Salmon La Sac area on Sunday.
Our party of three included myself, my wife and a friend who had never tried backcountry skiing. Heading over the pass, we were dealing with 15 deg temps and rain. Really strange, icy roads, slow traffic, and wiper problems lead to a change of plans and we stopped at Hyak to maybe do a to...
Our party of three included myself, my wife and a friend who had never tried backcountry skiing. Heading over the pass, we were dealing with 15 deg temps and rain. Really strange, icy roads, slow traffic, and wiper problems lead to a change of plans and we stopped at Hyak to maybe do a to...
The Alpental page (OSOALP) is pretty interesting too. Overnight and into today, the 5400' station climbed slowly from 13 to 33 degrees. The 3120' station climbed slowly from 12 degrees to 22 degrees. The mid-level, 4300' station, however, went through this progression over the same time period: 5 to 19 to 12 to 40 to 23 to 45 to 20 to 44 to 28 to 40.
The mirage photos are very cool, as are the various sudden temperature swings. But the...
This is really interesting - thanks for the report and photos, Phil. I had never heard of this before, but can see how it is analogous to the mirages over a hot road or sand. The temperature differences which led to this phenomenon can be seen in the NWAC telemetry data, along with some amazing temperature swings. Good examples on the Stevens Pass pages.
From the Stevens Hwy2 page (OSOSTS), hourly temperatures on 1/16 from 3 am to 7 am:
4000' temp: 10, 11, 10, 11, 10
4900' temp: &nb...
From the Stevens Hwy2 page (OSOSTS), hourly temperatures on 1/16 from 3 am to 7 am:
4000' temp: 10, 11, 10, 11, 10
4900' temp: &nb...
Are you kidding me? Sunny turns today - I would have never guessed. Pretty good vert too.
I once saw a similar phenomena once several years ago looking at the Olympics from somewhere in the Cascades. I can't find any notes on it. As I recall it was winter and several of the Olympics peaks had images of themselves floating directly above. I even remember that each image seemed sort of upside down. Is this possible? Guess I'll go read the link given by Michael.
Interesting... actually, I first noticed it looking to the northeast, and it *really* did look like mesas... I was like "hmm... I didn't know we had that kind of terrain in washington". Then only when we got a better view of the Maude/Entiat area did we realize what it was.
Some more mesas:
Another strange thing we experienced was a pronounced echo on the ridg...
Some more mesas:
Another strange thing we experienced was a pronounced echo on the ridg...
Now for the weird stuff. Clockwise from the Chiwawa river valley to the Stuart Range, above a lower cloud deck, there was some kind of "lens" that was "smearing" the view of the mountains, stretching them out vertically, like a TV scan line repeating itself.
On 3 Feb 1996 I skied Jim Hill Mountain with some friends and saw a similar phenomenon. Here's how I described it in my journal:
&q...
That's a bizzarre light effect. Cool!
Good report Orion! The snowpack has definitely gotten scary.
--Chris
--Chris
Thank you for your report, I was just on the phone making plans to ski in this very area on Sunday when I read it.
Based upon your report, I'm ditching the idea at present for somewhere else. or maybe in-bounds.
It's getting scary out there with snow conditions we are not used to .
I hope everybody stays vigilant this weekend and doesn't let the fustration factor tempt them to take a chance.
Based upon your report, I'm ditching the idea at present for somewhere else. or maybe in-bounds.
It's getting scary out there with snow conditions we are not used to .
I hope everybody stays vigilant this weekend and doesn't let the fustration factor tempt them to take a chance.
Bad news...
Link
Skier dies in avalanche at Snoqualmie Pass
04:26 PM PST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
KING5.com Staff
SEATTLE - A male skier died after being buried in an avalanche at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass on Wednesday afternoon.
Two skiers were skiing when the avalanche occurred at about 12:30 p.m. One man was buried, the other went for help....
Link
Skier dies in avalanche at Snoqualmie Pass
04:26 PM PST on Wednesday, January 12, 2005
KING5.com Staff
SEATTLE - A male skier died after being buried in an avalanche at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass on Wednesday afternoon.
Two skiers were skiing when the avalanche occurred at about 12:30 p.m. One man was buried, the other went for help....
We made a good choice. I was a bit sketched up there by the time we turned around. Damn.
Greg: i'm glad you stopped and turned around.
i'm glad we stopped and turned around too...
i'm glad we stopped and turned around too...
Greg, glad you didn't try to ski International...I'd agree with Jim that we picked a good turn-around point this morning.
Argh, I'd be interested, but Tuesday is the one day that I don't have time. >:(
Greg, I just heard word of the Avalanche and I am glad it wasn't you. Good thing we turned back where we did.
I'm done w/class at 10:30 on Tuesdays pBelitz, if you are interested.
Here's a few more pictures, not as good as Kam's - sorry to lose your head, Jim!
. . . it was really this dark
cascadesfreak
Most of jimjar taking air
A lineup of TAY'ers
. . . it was really this dark
cascadesfreak
Most of jimjar taking air
A lineup of TAY'ers
