Quick report
Road conditions: Dry road from MP20 to MP23. There is a large washout where Soldier Boy Creek crosses the road. The road past Soldier Boy creek has buckled and will require significant work. I'd be surprised if the NPS fixes it this year. Skinning conditions: Consistent snow coverage starts right at the parking lot at MP23. We transitioned from trail shoes to boots and skinned immediately from our transition spot. Pretty ideal. We didn't need ski crampons although after a few more days of sun maybe they'd be nice. The small, steep chute that you have to climb up to get to Cascade Pass has a few moats in it that require some caution when ascending. For the most part, though, travel up to Cascade Pass is quite easy. Snow & Skiing: We headed out towards Magic Mountain with intent of checking out the NE ('Banana') Couloir. Travel is quite pleasant up the Yawning Glacier with cold snow. Booting up polar aspects is pretty wallowy and deep. I had ascent plates but my partner did not and it was treacherous for them. We opted to turn around 2/3 up the couloir because of a change in texture of the snow that we weren't confident in (more wind slabby than we wanted). Skiing down was lovely, a bit sluffy but nothing too terrible. There was shedding/pinwheeling on solar aspects all day. Looking over at the S Glacier and Trapper, things are filling in nicely with these spring storms. By the end of the day, aspects below 5k' were pretty wet, anything below 4.5k' was thick soupy snow that was not very pleasant. Polar aspects above 6k' were holding well though. Anything solar, regardless of elevation, was pretty much cooked. Observed some variable size wind slabs in the NE Couloir of Magic Mountain. The snow fractured at variable depths, from 1-2 inches up to 4-5 inches. The cracking was isolated and did not propagate. We did not trigger any slides and skied down without incident.
Weather
- Cloud Cover
- scattered
- Rain Elevation
- 4000
On Wednesday 1-May, clouds were thick in the morning west of Cascade Pass but quite broken east of the Pass. After 9AM the sun came out in breaks and began to warm eastern aspects. By noon, there was pretty full sun anywhere east of the pass. Clouds hung on west of the Pass but greenhousing warmed anything below 5k'. All solar aspects were cooked by end of day and polar aspects below 5.5k' were getting quite wet.
Snowpack
The last few storms have helped the snowpack immensely in the Cascade River Road region. Snow surfaces above 6k' are smooth and looking much more filled in than this time last month. Below 5k' the snow is soggy, certainly not consolidated. On solar aspects it's a mix of crusts and aging snow. On polar aspects it's still dry and soft.