TR Replies

Mark, thanks, that helps a lot. We will add that to the (limited) list of possible destinations.

Joshua - Do you think there is any hope of soft snow in the area now? I'm thinking about going on Thursday, but I don't want boilerplate or nasty crust.  Any guesses about how it might be on the Muir snowfield? Thanks.

Thanks for the report and the good, if disappointing, info. I'm wondering about the Nordic Pass part - did you go through Nordic Pass and its forest? It sounds like you followed the groomed trail all the way around, which wouldn't actually take you through Nordic Pass (which has the route tree-marked but not groomed).

Sounds like you were in that area that gets side loaded .

Yes Sag -where ,Aspect and slope angle would be nice.
As part of a class on Sat we dug a rutcshblock on 30* west facing 5860' Edith basin . We failed the student cause he couldn't get it to budge !:-) Snow layers were as you describe but snow had drained. Were you above 6000' ?   Of cousre every day and every different aspect it changes.Thanks for the report, Andy you too.

...or make that east peak...

The reality was "went to Mazama Ridge and played in the Cascade concrete". Don't know the temp, but diffential above freezing.

The yurts are up McCully Basin at about 7400 ft. The basin is entered from the north on the same road as a little ski area - Fergusson Ridge, out of Joseph. Another popular trip is the Wing Ridge huts/yurts, which are south of McCully basin.

The McCully yurts are run by http://www.wallowahuts.com/

and Wing Ridge is at http://www.oregontrail.net/wingski/

Ron it is a small world - I saw your report last July, so thought there was still time to ski the sw chutes. We went 2 weeks laters and camped in a sand basin below, intending to climb and ski the same route. Unfortunately a wind storm came in and as we were climbing early the next morning, the gusts were almost blowing us off our stance. I had a whippet, but my buddy only had ski poles. We decided about a 1/3 of the way up it was too risky that he was going to take a big slide, so we skied from...

Nice report, Great Pics, Russ.
Small world, too.  I just happened to note that your friends, Carl and Lisa, skied my favorite run of all, the SW Chutes on Adams, on the very same day last year that Mad Dog and I skied them.  Same trip right down to the Goats! (they got better goat pics than we did, however)  :)
http://www.turns-all-year.com/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=tr0207;action=display;num=1031764279

Yea Jim, I was being a little cautious in my reporting. First couple of runs on Monday we hit a glade that was probably 16"-18" of nice light powder. I just didn't want everyone rushing off think they find that everywhere in the basin.

BTW, I'm sure I saw Jim levitate a time or two in the yurt. He probably reached nirvana and can't remember it!  ;)

Yes, thanks for the photo links! Lots of great shots showing those of us who have never made it there (yet) what the terrain is like. The low snowpack is really striking, but it looks like the group found enough coverage to have a good time. The panoramas are great, too.

At least in my memory there was even more like 5-8" of powder on some of the slopes we farmed on the last day of the trip (when our visions of a reasonable return time to Seattle evaporated due to the thought of "hmm, when will we likely next see any snow like this??). It was a very fun trip which included some 4-500 vf slope farming on high ridges and glades as well as an awesome ski up a 9000+ ft peak with views of the Wallowa range and the ice fog that plagued the valleys while we e...

Matt,

  If you short a skiing partner for tours such as this just let me know. I'm free seven days a week 24 hours a day and ready to tour on a moments notice. I'll be doing plenty solo trips this year if the weather and snowpack cooperate.
Darin

I skied across it.  Pole probes showed a few inches of snow on top of a few inches of slush, below that I was afraid to look.  Walking across may not be recommended, but skiing was OK.

Maximum Slope angle on the Worm Flows route?
If you stay on the main climbing route that tens to be on ridgelines, then I would say about 30 degrees. There might be a few slopes near the top that are 35, but they dont last long. Hope this helps

Scott:
What would you say is the maximum slope angle you encountered on the route?

Hey markharf,
The NWAC mentioned turns-all-year in their monday detailed avalanche forcast because of your post about the remaining powder in the baker backcountry.  way to go.

Good report, Mark.
You DO seem to have a handle on the Baker goods.

You certainly do seem to get around, Zap.

Hi Greg:

Yep, that was me.  All that whining I was doing about my knee on that trip in September turned out related to a torn meniscus and related damage, which kept me out of action until recently (didn't miss much, from the sound of it).  I'm now back to a once-a-week-backcountry schedule, mostly up around this area, mostly Saturday, Sunday or Monday.  Glad to ski with any or all of you again; get in touch through Pete or at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Hope you're enjoying...

How's this for a good example of inversion/easterly flow effects: the telemetry shows that yesterday Paradise had a high of 64 degrees, while the three Snoqualmie Pass stations reached 26-30 degrees with a constant east wind. From up on the Muir I could see that a lot of valleys east of the Crest were filled with fog, and that the fog was flowing westward through gaps in the Crest like White Pass.

If that was the intro to spring skiing, we're in big trouble!

Allen, thanks for the good info on Muir. I'm also planning on going up to Paradise tomorrow (1/17), don't know if I will have any partners, but I will look for you and your friend. I'm hoping to be to the gate by 9:00. I'm most interested in finding good skiing, and if that happens to be on the Muir...great. But there are a lot of other good places to go from Paradise for turns, so I don't have any fixed plans. I'll send you an email now as well.

well, as soon as I posted that last sentence, another friend called and wants to go tomorrow (friday). So I guess I'll do it again, but it better start snowing, I don't want to do this every week.

Here's a few more details ...
A few weeks ago on a Sunday when David, Sky, and I were parked for a tour on Heliotrope we drove beyond the sign marked "No Motorized Vehicles Beyond This Point" which is located about 1 mile from the TH.  We parked close to the TH and as we were leaving to tour we were "buzzed" by maybe 10 biler's.  They stopped and were hanging around with engines running when one of them came up and said he didn't mean to be a dickhead but that he...