Cascadia/WA Pow Farming ‘23/‘24

[S_jenks]

Since there is no active thread for the AK, I figure that this one will do for a trip to “the far narth”

First timer up at Alyeska, despite years of living with AK people and hearing all the stories. When conditions are good, this place is straight up awesome.









The skiing is pretty fun too:

[riff]

Ok, after ten years in wa I’m making the journey to Crystal tomorrow with a buddy from elsewhere; hit me with some tactics from you local operators if you would! We’ll be coming over from the east side and getting the last of the sunshine


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[Huskier]

Campbell lodge. The sign says you can't take the beer outside, but if you're low key no one will say anything. PM'd you with deets as I'll be up as well

[nickwm21]

Should be a great ski day. With all the WFHers burning their sick days last two weeks I bet it’s pretty quiet.

Ski some short groomers in the sun off Green Valley then head to Chair 6. Sample the north and south facing terrain off 6. If you like what your skiing, go for a walk out Southback for more of the same with less tracks.


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[Dromond]

When conditions are good, this place is straight up awesome.

You mean when snow conditions, stability AND visibility are good. Looks like you hit it nicely!

[Buster Highmen]

Ok, after ten years in wa I’m making the journey to Crystal tomorrow with a buddy from elsewhere; hit me with some tactics from you local operators if you would! We’ll be coming over from the east side and getting the last of the sunshine

Crustalled today: frontside is really marginal and gooey after about 11:00.
GV Grubstake chutes skied OK until about 1:00.
Best snow is on the N facing slope under the gondy up top, then honking boater GS turns down Iceberg (middle Ferks) to lap Rex.

Chair 6 traverse is spicy, most S facing is mank, some decent turns out on Hamburger (traverse all the way till it's NE facing).

Northway also manky on S exposures, best is Northway Bowl there. Shady stuff is icy.

[patg]

Thanks for the report Buster. Wife and I are heading west for a wedding this weekend and will sneak in a couple days. Leaning towards heading straight to Crystal over Alpental Wednesday afternoon straight from the airport based on the temps. Holler if you see us, we’ll be the people getting dressed in the parking lot


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[Ted26]

Noticed this photo on the NWAC observation page. Is the Kautz ice cliff above the turtle snowfield now gone? Just a trick of the camera angle? Don’t recall this area ever being connected before. Ignore the circled line, unrelated

[bfree]

I dunno about "gone" but it looks like there is a skiable line through it that I don't remember seeing before. Maybe that's a good sign that the upper mountain is nice and fat. That Wilson area doesn't look particularly well filled though, so who knows.

[BaseFloopy]

Fun morning at Crustal. North facing and shaded terrain still crusty, everything else getting soft. Very soft.

[Power_Sauce]

Noticed this photo on the NWAC observation page. Is the Kautz ice cliff above the turtle snowfield now gone? Just a trick of the camera angle? Don’t recall this area ever being connected before. Ignore the circled line, unrelated

Area is not actually connected - there is a small cliff between the turtle and Kautz. In big snow years up high you can ski the Kautz icefall - had a very memorable descent down it in early July some years back.


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[kamtron]

Noticed this photo on the NWAC observation page. Is the Kautz ice cliff above the turtle snowfield now gone? Just a trick of the camera angle? Don’t recall this area ever being connected before. Ignore the circled line, unrelated

Interesting, that ice cliff is sure changing. Just like the ice on all our volcanoes, thinning and moving around.
FWIW Baker's glaciers above 8k are pretty well filled-in this year from what I've heard including some spicy lines.

I've skied the standard Kautz route with the cliff between Turtle and Kautz that Power Sauce is talking about... we're looking at something different here. I think there was some kooky guy on Facebook posting about wanting to ski that line directly through the cliff last year, I don't remember if he did or not.

[MagnificentUnicorn]

I’m happy to see a return to winter but the last three days have been great spring skiing over here. Show up around 11:30 and start the corn harvest. The stickiness was gone and the snow fast.


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[Huskier]

Mashed tater avy debris everywhere, zero vis from top to bottom. Feels like spring at Crustal

[bfree]

Mashed tater avy debris everywhere, zero vis from top to bottom. Feels like spring at Crustal

Yeah the snow was fine but we bailed at noon after being tired of skiing by braille in the upper bowls. Also I have no idea where they managed to place a snowstake at the base with 59" on it - there ain't much snow down low. Kelly's gap, Exterminator, gold hills all closed due to no snow.

[ptavv]

it's not crystal's snow stake, it's nwac's data station by the bottom of quicksilver at the small little water reservoir

i've always been low-key respectful of crystal using official usfs snowfall data on their site rather than pr nonsense (aside from the daily conditions blurbs, obv)

[eSock]

The chair 6 wiggle was fun

The green valley wiggle was evil

[el hefe]

"FWIW Baker's glaciers above 8k are pretty well filled-in this year from what I've heard including some spicy lines." I missed out on Baker last year by waiting to long. Any thoughts on hitting it this spring? I realized it is a low snow year for the area but your comment made me think about it again.

Drive home from Vancouver yesterday....

[CHAIR_97]

"FWIW Baker's glaciers above 8k are pretty well filled-in this year from what I've heard including some spicy lines." I missed out on Baker last year by waiting to long. Any thoughts on hitting it this spring? I realized it is a low snow year for the area but your comment made me think about it again.

Drive home from Vancouver yesterday....

Plenty of coverage on the Southside as of a week ago

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[eSock]

https://www.facebook.com/groups/skit...1029197208398/

"Found a single ON3P billy goat at the base of parachute at snoqualmie, someone’s missing this.
Turned it in to lost and found"

[AK47bp]

Some heros don’t wear capes.

[PeachesNCream]

How’s the snow pack doing? Thinking of booking a trip April 20 weekend for some spring skiing/touring. Last I heard, the NW had a rough start but then some big storms came through late season? Odds stevens will be open?


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[kamtron]

"FWIW Baker's glaciers above 8k are pretty well filled-in this year from what I've heard including some spicy lines." I missed out on Baker last year by waiting to long. Any thoughts on hitting it this spring? I realized it is a low snow year for the area but your comment made me think about it again.

I heard that people summited from the South on Sunday in the nice weather. I made it up to 9k on the north side (Coleman-Deming) but turned there due to active windloading on that side of the Roman wall. Most of the snow was pretty wind-affected above Heliotrope ridge, but down low there was some awesome powder.

The glacier is in fine shape, a little more ice and sags visible for this time of year. I usually don't make it up there until about a month later than now. I'd say the glaciers will be adequately covered into June (likely into July with more shenanigans and probably lots of suncups), but that depends on how hot it gets. Surface conditions... who knows, will depend on the day. Last season was shocking how fast the Roman wall melted out to crappy ice and rock. Things are changing rapidly year-to-year.

[kamtron]

A couple pics

Some wind-affected snow on Coleman glacier (skied down the fall-line, away from the uptrack)


Thunder glacier looking like crap compared to last year... icefall has broken up a ton


Nice snow down low

[el hefe]

^^^ thank you. May be PM'ing you if I can get some buds together.