randosaigai.com
The Slot Couloir, Snoqualmie Mt., March 10, 2004
The Slot from the top . . .
Wednesday, March 10 was another beautiful spring day with temperatures forecast in the 60's and Kevin and I decided to get out and tour before all the snow melted, heading up Snoqualmie Mountain again around 10:00 AM. The skin up went smoothly through the trees, where the snow was partially frozen corn and stayed good until about the 4,800 ft level when the soft surface snow started to give way under our skins. We headed left to the "notch" at around 5,280 ft. and got ready to ski.
Unfortunately, the north-facing aspects were still frozen hard as a rock in the shade, and the ski left something to be desired as we headed skier's right to traverse to the Slot. After a bit of indecision as to which couloir to climb, we booted up the Slot for several hundred feet until, back in the shade, the climbing became, to say the least, labored. Kevin opted for a quick ski and lunch at this while I continued up the couloir at a snail's pace. Some time later I emerged at the top (about 200 ft. further up the ridge than the last time we looked down the north side of Snoqualmie), de-skinned, downed a Clif Shot, and began the careful ski back down over severe rain-slicked ice and runnels.
Looking to make an early day of it, the we tried several notches to the north of the peak, but none looked to offer an easy traverse back to the Phantom . . . in the end, we ended up skinning nearly to Snow Lake, then over the ridge and out the Snow Lake Trail. The snow through the cliffs over the trail was as manky as snow gets, pouring down the mountain in rivers of semi-liquid corn soup after we passed . . . another day of questionable skiing, but great aerobic effort!
