Sloan Peak - West Slopes 4-5-2009

With a leisurely Sunday morning departure time from Seattle I set out for the Mountain Loop Highway south of Darrington. Right after I arrived at my parking location, two snow mobilers arrived and said they were setting out for Barlow Pass.  Around ten minutes later they returned and said there was a large slide that was blocking them from getting more than a few miles past where we were parked near FS 4096.  They didn't mention what kind of slide, but I'm guessing land slide.  Now it's around 11am and I am walking up the lower section of FS 4096.  If it were not for a large pile of snow near the entrance, I would have driven up the first 1/2 mile or so.  Once to continuous snow on 4096, it just keeps going and going as I make my way to the trail head of #705 Bedal Creek.  There is a few blow downs on 4096 that will need to be moved/trimmed to make driving up this rode painless when melted out.  A decent hand saw would work, for the ones that I saw.  Keep in mind that the snow was still at least a half pole length deep, on stretches of the road, so there could be more lurking below.  Once at the trail head, as expected, I found lots of snow beneath the "older growth" canopy.  Rather than attempt to follow the trail, I decided to just ascend the mountain directly making wide switch backs through the canopy heading south as much as possible.  It is rather steep in places, but manageable.  I was doing my best to make my way to the western side of Sloan when I saw a large treeless opening off in the distance.  Upon further inspection I saw the remains of a recent slide at the top of the treeless section.  It looked like it could have been from the day before. (Saturday)  So back on my way up the mountain I eventually started getting into thinner and thinner sections of trees.  Naturally, it was very steep in this area, and with the wet powder, it really started to slow me down.  I eventually called it a day around 4,160ft in a safe area with a view towards the east side of what I think is Morning Star Peak.  Whatever it was, it appeared to have some very large glaciers/permanent snowfields on it that looked amazing.  A view of Mount Baker was had as well.  After lunch, I started heading down.  Shortly after around 5:15pm I heard one small slide in the distance to the north of me, and then around 5:30pm I heard a larger one from the same direction.  Both sounded far enough away as to not create a lot of concern.  I skied coustiously on the upper slopes with young short trees, as solar effects would be greater here.  The canopy trees are rather tall in this area; they provide enough coverage from sun light but still allow for good skiing and anchoring.  I skied mostly conservative due to the harder to turn in wet snow, and also for the potential slide hazard.  I exited out onto 4096 just a little below the trail head.  Unfortunately, 4096 was not quite steep enough in a lot of places so I had to free heel it part of the way.  However, the snow was wet enough that I never had to put skins back on.  I returned to the Mountain Loop at 1,420ft around 7pm.  This trip was recon for a multi day trip I want to do in the future.  Basically I want to ascend Sloan from the north west, hook and traverse around to the east side and ski the glacier then descend the east side toward FS 49 perhaps in the direction of the trail head for #648.  It could be great with another vehicle waiting down on FS 49 to take you back to the top of 4096, and not a long way out of the way as 4096 and 49 are right by each other.  More on my idea

Slideshow: http://www.the808.net/gallery/slideshow.php?set_albumName=Sloan-Peak-April-2009

Standard gallery: http://www.the808.net/gallery/Sloan-Peak-April-2009


Steep




recent slide



An "opening" in the canopy



Does anybody recognize this? What's the name?