Quick report
- Cracking
- isolated
Another cold day; insulated pants, warm gloves, and extra jackets were key to happiness. The story, however, is the recent wind's impact on the snowpack. Our plan for the day was a long ramble to sheltered slopes, looking for a low-angle saunter with the prospect of settled powder; it was not to be. Bright clear skies through the morning, with high clouds making an appearance mid-day followed by a stunning top-five Snoqualmie sunset. Cold temperatures, easterly flow, and an inversion kept things interesting. Looking across the pass, atmospheric shimmer was easily visible to the naked eye. When we crossed a ridge at 4400' and departed the easterly flow, our temperature sensor, which hadn't read above +6F all day and had spent much of the day below zero, jumped from +4F to +24F in less than fifteen minutes. As we traveled the Windy Pass environs, it had clearly lived up to its name in recent days. Throughout the area, surface snow had been scoured away, leaving large-grain graupel at the surface everywhere (see photos). In places the scouring had reached down to an icy knife-hard crust. As we headed toward our destination, it became clear that even in mature and heavy timber, wind had reached the snowpack, forming impressive and supportable windslab in surprising places. As we attempted a lower-angle sneak into the alpine, we found impressively-supportable 10-15 cm windslab sitting atop all of the settled powder (30-60cm?) we had come for, so we turned tail. Ski quality was moderate to occasionally poor, but the views and partner made the day a great one. Cold Creek delivered as usual, at +2F all the way down in the afternoon. "Cold" wax wasn't cold enough; skating out was slow. No instability noted as we traveled. Isolated cracking beneath our skis as we crossed low-angle slabs, but no major whumphs.