Inversion makes for good skiing at higher elevations

We had a rare treat in Washington this weekend with temperatures in the high 40s above 5,000 feet, blue skies and plenty of corn after 11am when it warmed up. All the south facing slopes were great, but those with a north face stayed firm - definitely not recommended.
Saturday at Crystal we stayed mostly on Sunnyside where some good sized bumps had formed, but also a few runs down Forest Queen. We stayed off of high campell - there was avalanche debris in Powderbowl and on the front side, the snow was best described as mank where a thick layer had started to thaw.
Sunday we migrated to Mt. Rainier and did two laps in the lower Nisqually Chutes. There the corn was perfect by noon and provided great skiing. The skin up had some icy patches, so having ski crampons and boot crampons is highly advised. We witnessed one person fall 100 feet in a firm section but he finally arrested and was not hurt.

An inversion is sitting over western Washington this week, with highs in Seattle around 45, and a reported high of 50 yesterday at the top of Crystal (about 6500 feet). The pattern is expected to hold into next week, so we should see spring skiing conditions at higher elevations (over 4500') this weekend.

Norse Peak, Sunday January 4

Welcome to my first post! At this blog I'll chronicle the skiing, mountain biking and climbing adventures I've done or heard about first hand. This will be primarily in the Cascade mountains near Seattle.

Wow! 8 inches of fresh snow over a recent rain crust made for some excellent backcountry skiing. Norse Peak is directly east of the Crystal Mountain ski area. We skinned to the top (happily someone had already broken trail), did a few runs down the back, which I believe is Cement Basin, then a few down the front. Only minimial instabilities in the snow were noted, but in fact my partner Tim was caught in a small avalanche as we stupidly skiied a leeward (NE facing) slope. He stayed above the snow so thankfully there was no penalty. The east facing aspect of Cement Basin had 8-10 inches of unconsolidated powder and was fantastic skiing. The photo here is looking at Crystal Mountain and Mt. Rainier from the top of Norse Peak. Of course no backcountry adventure would be complete without some screw up; ours happened to be not cutting left soon enough on the exit and having to walk half a mile up the road to get back to our car at the end of the day.