Jan. 26, Mt. Snoqualmie Corn Harvest

So Seth had this new alternate route to get to the goods.  Basically you went out the back door of the condo, skinned uphill for ten minutes, then started booting.   Gosh, only 3000 feet later you reach the summit.   Somehow, Seth's estimate of 500 feet of bootpacking, changed to something like only 2,700 feet.   Anyhow, we made the summit, then skied southerly aspects off  Snoqualmie.  Perfect corn, butter smooth.  We managed 4 runs, two short drops, then one lap to the gully that separates Snoq. Mt. from Cave Ridge.   Finally,  after another solid bootpack up the SE ridge, we traversed towards Lundin and dropped down into the Commonwealth valley.  Nice day.

Seth, just boot it.



Kevin, cheating on the boot pack for a minute

Good n' Steep

Kevin balances on the edge of darkness.



Seth

Elevation gain:  5,045     Loss:  5,234 

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

Jan 27, Mt. Snoqualmie. and Red Mt.

 Hooked up with Seth and Eric Noll for a tour out the backdoor of the Adler condo at Alpental.  Went up the Phantom to the summit of Mt. Snoqualmie, then dropped briefly into the crooked couloir basin (totally windblown after first pitch).  Climbed out to the West summit of Snoq. and dropped down the Commonwealth Valley to the base of Red Mt.   Red had about 8-10 inches of powder over a firm base.  Skied very well.  Then we cruised down the commonwealth and out to the Alpental road.  Got lucky and caught a shuttle bus almost immediately that took us back up the road.   Visibility was pretty poor on Snoqualmie, but the turns on Red were sweeet.  Sorry no Red pics.

Dropping off Snoqualmie Mt. into
the Crooked Couloir drainage.

Seth naviagates through the sluff and fog

Switching over to boot up the rest of Red Mt.

April 1, Mt. Snoqualmie - Slot - Phantom

Seth, at the top of the Slot Couloir

Got out of bed for an early start with Seth.  Seth said he was glad that I showed up at 6:30.  Since it was April 1, he was a little concerned about it being an April Fools prank.  I told him it would have been a much earlier start, if I wasn't planning on showing up!   Seth (the Trakmaster 1000)  laid in a sweet skin track up the edge of the Phantom slidepath.  All tracks from the previous week had been erased by fresh snow and a bit of wind action.   We made good time up to the Slot entrance.  The slot couloir looked pretty blown out, but we were hopeful further down conditions would improve.  Unfortunately it remained pretty firm all the way down, with a 4" slab layer that occasionally cut loose.  It was a lot of firm turns.  Always interesting, just not the best ski.  The front side, more than made up for the slot.  We enjoyed fluffy turns all the way down to the waterfall, which was easily negotiated with our huge snowpack.  Nice day - a little under four hours for the tour.  Still had time for lift served at Alpy!

Steep.

Frontside freshies

March 12, Snoq. Mt. - tree skiing

February 1, Snoqualmie Mt.

Ran up Snoqualmie Mt. with Don Hecker and Josh McBride from work.  Really nice snow above treeline.  A little thick on the phantom slide area.   Nice skin track was already put in through the trees.  We got the pleasure of laying in the skintrack, above treeline, to the slot entrance, then to the summit.  No backside adventures with the poor visibility and wind.  However, we enjoyed the frontside turns.

Don makes turns off the summit.

Josh works the new skis.

Jan. 3, Cave Ridge

Hooked up with Scott Otterson for his annual ski day.  He's back to Germany to work on wind power next week.  Also, along for the tour was Greg Louie.  With no real agenda we headed up the commonwealth valley.  We got sucked over towards Guy Peak and found an interesting ascent route through the cliffs to attain Cave Ridge.  Climbed to the high point of Cave Ridge then dropped North towards  Mt. Snoqualmie before hanging a right back into the commonwealth drainage.  More touring, than turning, but an excellent day in the woods.

March 18, Snoqualmie Mt.

Went up and looked at the slot couloir with Brandon and Ellie.  Due to time constraints, and unsure about exit conditions we gave it a pass.  Looked to be in excellent condition.  I am sure someone will enjoy tracking it up this weekend.  We hit the summit, then made tracks to the bottom.  Skiing was pretty crusty, although the trees skied fairly well.

Brandon cruises in the trees

Ellie, smiling, must not be too bad.

Dec 17, Slot couloir, Snoq. Mt.

Alpental was pretty tracked out, so decided to get a little human powered skiing.  Hooked up with Greg Louie and Justin Herx  at the Alpental parking lot.  Word was two groups had skied the slot yesterday, so we had a nice uptrack to follow.  As we neared the top, caught up with Silas and a large group of about 8.  Lucky for us, all but two ignored the slot and headed back down the frontside.  That put Greg as 3rd person down the slot for the day.  Justin was happy to have his first chance at skiing the slot.  Weather was perfect and snow was pretty darn good as well.  Slot skied a little narrower with early season rocks.  The apron was definitely a little thin on snow and Justin found most of the rocks.   After Greg busted out the super steep skin track back to the frontside we enjoyed great snow all way down the frontside as well.  Justin even had to ski the waterfall, although he did opt out on the last pitch.   Nice day.

Greg scouts out the Slot

Kinda Steep

Justin 

Skiing out from the slot

Justin avoiding rocks

Greg Louie powder shot

Justin skis the phantom waterfall with the valley below.

Feb. 15, Slot Quickie

Sunrise from the summit of Snoqualmie Mountain

Broke out early for an assault on Snoqualmie Mt.  Once again, destination The Slot.   Ski partner Seth, had to be done by 9:00, so we made a pre-dawn start at 5:00.    Headlights stayed on until almost 7:00.   Summited Snoq.  Mt., then dropped back down to the slot entrance.   Turns in the slot were good, but the apron had slid and was nasty.  Also, the ski out was still frozen up and provided no good turns.  All in all, good exercise, and nice to get to lay first tracks in the couloir for the day.   As we finished, about a dozen people were just getting started on the climb.  Finished right at nine, and took a couple minutes at the beacon practice area to make sure we still knew how to work our avy beacons.

Seth

Seth

Kevin

Jan. 27, 2010 Slot Couloir, Snoq. Mt.

I checked my email before heading to bed and had an email from Crispin Prahl.  We had skied the Alpental backcountry on Tuesday and talked about hooking up for a tour.  Well Crispin had dug up one of his usual conspirators, Jeremy Allyn,  and was planning on a 7:20 am start to ski the Slot Couloir on the North side of Snoqualmie Mt..    I usually try to enjoy my sleep, so I ignored his email and figured if I woke up and was motivated, I would find them in the parking lot.  I managed to get out of bed, and since I only live ten minutes away, managed to be late (7:22).  I arrived to see Crispin and Jeremy already skinning up the slope below the Phantom Slide.   Kindly they waited for me to catch up.  A skin track had been put in on Tuesday, that led directly to the slot entrance.  We made it to the top of the slot in a quick two hours.  The group yesterday was only two skiers, and the slot looked like it had plenty of fresh snow.  Pretty much a perfect day.Good ski partners, an easy skin track to follow, and perfect snow conditions.  Glad I got out of bed!

Crsipin, all smiles, perched on the edge of  the Slot Couloir

Jeremy slips into position

Nice!