Tatoosh - MRNP - 2.6-7.10

Snow Bell, Moscawulff and I decided to head out and look for white out conditions, flat light and almost zero visibility, 3" of new overnight and unstable snow.  We hit the jackpot.  We were actually so good at finding these conditions that we got them almost the entire trip!  After some good laughs and a bit of a late start, we slayed the Stevens Canyon road from Narada and headed up to a good overnight site.  As we quickly threw the weight from our packs, Joe and I headed up for some laps, but the snow underfoot felt vastly different than what we had approached on.  Digging two pits in the NNW facing slope (38-40*) we reached what we thought was a buried hoar frost layer about 8-12" under, and the questionable layer varying in thickness, up to 3" or so.  One pit only compacted after all blows, and the other failed after 13 or so (on the questionable layer).  Avy danger was reported mod.-consider.  Shovel shear repeatedly swept clean at our culprit layer and was enough to turn us around and back to camp.  We gorged on some food, hoping conditions would improve the following day.  As we crashed, Brad got proof that it cleared up for a while...



3" of new gave us hope for good skiing, and the suckerholes of bluebird while we made breakfast helped raise our hopes of getting some decent visibility.  However, we came in looking for flat light, and that's what we were going to get, by George!  While the sun broke through for some brief moments, the day was soon again enveloped in ominous fog.  We all agreed that a better route out would be to gain the ridge to Foss peak and possibly get some treed laps in safer terrain on some S facing slopes.  We broke camp and gained the ridge.  Tree skiing wasn't bad, and we got a few decent short shots of glee, but for the most part our visibility was very limited and we decided to call it a day.


^{Our camp at least offered a dry storage option.}

We decided to drop to the road from a different NNW facing slope with a few options for safe zones.  We made a couple of ski cuts and greedily dipped in.  The snow was the best snow we'd had yet and visibility was beginning to shape up.  One skier down to a safe zone and two ready to go, the second one dropped...and on the second turn propagated a soft slab almost 2' deep with the crown extending 80-100' or so, near 6200'.  Luckily, the runout was not far and it broke apart quickly; everyone was in a safe zone immediately.  However, the reality of the situation sank in as adrenaline wore off and our departure choices were narrowed to the most conservative lines available.  Further investigation exposed our questionable hoar frost layer as our culprit - again.



Despite a lot of obstacles, it was a really fun trip.  I ended up remembering lyrics to hip-hop songs I thought I had long forgotten.  Thanks for letting us all share your camera Joe!