[John Morrow]

We thought we'd have a cautious look today and were surprised at what we found. Approached from the Nordic Trails and the blue diamond route to Nordic Pass. Well below Nordic Pass we began our traverse to the north slope and started climbing in oldgrowth forest. Avoiding some bony and tight patches threw me off a bit, and I struggled to find the route between cliff faces that gets you to the upper old growth slopes! It all looked different with just enough snowdepth to get by on. Many small trees showing in the forest that often are deeply buried.

Cool rime!

Uptrack

Tinkham from top

Direct observations: No woomphing when on any slope angle, though reported in flats by others, probable collapse of the intermediary rain crust. Intermediary rain crust began to disappear just below the 5000 ft summit. Could not get planar shears on switchbacks when jumping or tugging. No shooting cracks. No wind effect or visible transport in the protected forested slopes. Trees held the snow all day. Some minor tree bombs on the snow surface, from wind in the canopy, I am guessing, some time prior to our arrival. Skin track penetration less than 20 cm on average. Surface and near surface snow remained light and uncohesive at all our altitudes for the entire day. It skied very well to 3600 feet. On the actual north slope of Catherine itself, with effort to avoid the small tree tops, blowdown across the fall line, and marginally filled in watercourses.

Off the top

Good snow!

No, we didn't trend skiers left!

My first day out since the 15 turns we got below Hidden Lake Peak back in October! It was a good one with Jake. Hopefully start of many. The knee held up on this mellow vertical climb and distance. For the snowgeeks, what we found in the snowpack: We remainded beneath old forest canopy for the entire tour with the exception of the near mandatory small openings one must pass through to maintain a reasonable skin track. Honestly, we found no buried surface hoar at the interface of the Tuesday storm snow and the January mega crust. What we did find was roughly like this, surface downward, for most of the climb between 3800 and 5000 ft: Note: these were brief tug tests after quickly isolating columns with poles and hands. No quantative tests conducted. 10 to 20cm Fist hardness, fine uncohesive metamorphosed powder on the surface. Must have been a relatively cold night. On top of: 10 to 15 cm, 4-Finger hardness denser powder, even damp below 4000ft. No clean planar shears between the 2 storm snow layers, (Q2 observed). On top of and generally bonded to: 1 to 2 cm rain/freezing rain crust, Pencil hard. We took out the lens here but could not find significant faceted snow on either side of this rain crust. On slopes with angle the crust was supportive. On top of: 10 cm, 4-finger older powder, mostly small fragments, not quite facets. On top of: Impenetrable January mega crust. Again, not much sign of facets on the surface of the crust. Lack of faceting probably due to the forest canopy, but held true even in small openings. If the party we met today has anything to add or correct, by all means, help me out. Nothing I noted above, in today's forested route, would convince me to venture out on any big open slopes tomorrow. Certainly not near Stevens along Route 2 corridor! I will be curious to hear from others if the buried surface hoar is less of an issue in the Snoqualmie region, if anyone does some tests on open slopes. West ridge probably reasonably safe for snowshoers right now. I cannot remember having to venture across any steep open slopes on that route, especiallly snowshoeing.

[Bedivere]

Sweet!

[iron]

thanks for the snow report!