Baker Ice Crust

its really gnarly. we skied the far ridge off hemis and i was sideslipping with zero control on mellow slopes. herman looked pretty good, im guessing thats a good bet. it sounds like theres no crust to be found at other parts of the cascades. I'm still hoping to go camping tommorow, but it may just be worth a visit to crystal. i cant really figure out where that crust came from though, from what i can figure out it went from mix snow and rain on sunday to new snow tuesday night, and i guess there was a period of rain in between.

there's definitely ice crust in the OR cascades right now too, under the 6-8 inches of snow from tuesday.

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Originally Posted by lameduck

its really gnarly. we skied the far ridge off hemis and i was sideslipping with zero control on mellow slopes. herman looked pretty good, im guessing thats a good bet. it sounds like theres no crust to be found at other parts of the cascades. I'm still hoping to go camping tommorow, but it may just be worth a visit to crystal. i cant really figure out where that crust came from though, from what i can figure out it went from mix snow and rain on sunday to new snow tuesday night, and i guess there was a period of rain in between.

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Yeah, Hemis, was the scariest / worst I have ever skied it, when we did it thursday PM. I'm heading up herman tomorrow after I meet up with Squirle and crew at the upper lodge.

the arm was pretty good on sat. just make sure you hit it where the sun has not affected the snow.

Agreed. The temps went up the other day and thawed the top layer quite a bit and then dropped well below freezing and snowed a few inches. Not much we can do but hope for it to warm up again and then gradually begin freezing with lots of precip. Now is the time to get some work done.

where do you baker guys get the best weather reports from for the area?

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Originally Posted by watanabee

where do you baker guys get the best weather reports from for the area?

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www.nwac.noaa.gov

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Originally Posted by watanabee

where do you baker guys get the best weather reports from for the area?

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http://www.nwac.noaa.gov/mtnweather.htm
NWAC

Mt. Hood is suffering from exactly the same setup. The Palmer is like an ice sculpture contest and the chutes off the summit have 4" of pow with ice underneath. fun times.

There is NO good snow to be had at Baker right now, especially on the arm. I hiked it 3 times today and let me tell you there is no pow whatsoever, its all crust. ;)