Feb. 9, Crooked Couloir

Title for this trip report was suppose to be Middle Fork descent off Snoqualmie Mountain.  Seth and I headed out at 7:15 and made it to the top of Snoqualmie in two hours.  We were way ahead of schedule.  To line up for the 4,500 foot descent to the middle fork, we need to drop due North from the East summit.  To reach the E. Summit, we dropped briefly into the crooked basin, then began touring up and to the East.   This is where the trip itinerary began to change.  Visibility was really poor.   We could barely tell which direction was up.  After touring up for ten minutes, we decided to pull the plug and drop the crooked couloir.   The crooked was in excellent shape, with only two tracks from the previous day.   As we approached the gut, visibility began to improve and we had good skiing through the crux and all the way to the bottom. 
Seth with the Crooked above.
 Since we had to cut short our original plans, we climbed around to the front side of Snoq. and checked out the Slot entrance - nice and icy.  We opted for some very nice front side powder down to where the main treeline starts.  Best turns of the day.  With plenty of time left in the day, we climbed back to the slot and did one more frontside lap, all the way down to the parking lot.  Lower slopes were pretty crunchy due to yesterdays nice weather.  About 6,000 feet of climbing/skiing today.

Kevin 

Starting to get a little funky

Seth

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