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Seattle Basic SIG SNOW FT - SIG Snow Overnight (Snow Anchors & Belays, Crevasse Rescue, Snow Camping, & Roped Travel) - Snoqualmie Summit areas

Snow Field Trip for Sean / Kelly SIG along with Marcey/Jim Nelson's SIG. At the Common wealth area of the Snoqualmie Summit area

Ananth Maniam (ஆனந்த் மணியம்) Ananth Maniam (ஆனந்த் மணியம்)
April 23, 2018
  • Road suitable for all vehicles

  • Location changed from Source lake to Snoqualmie Summit area

     

    Roads were clear of Snow, Plenty of parking as the Ski resort was closed. Snow was soft and mushy, but walking in a line and re-inforcing kicked steps, was learnt through practical experience. Overnight temperatures dipped to below freezing, forming crusty tops with soft snow below. Walking with crampons for alpine starts, was a tricky experience. 

    Not ideal conditions for ice axe arrest, due to soft and mushy snow. But the group did a great job learning from all the opportunities the snow and weather provided

Both the days were grey , cloudy, with intermittent rain and snow

Day 1: Start from the Common wealth trail head by 8.50 boots on ground. Practicing kicking steps and walking single file to the camping area. Dropped all our camping gear, wore crampons and split into groups of 6. Nice soft snow. we practiced walking in balance, ice axe uses, walking in single file, traversing steep slopes. We head to the top of the ski lifts. Practice roped travel, snow anchor building, belaying and glissading. Soft snow didn't allow us to practice all forms of arrest as we assessed it to be not- ideal (unsafe) for it.

At 3PM we come back to set up camp, we saw another SIG set up camp at the same spot, around 30 people camped in the same spot. Melted snow, had dinner. We then roped up again to keep the ropes ready for an alpine start

Day 2: We start at 4AM with headlamps on, walking on crusty snow on the top with soft snow , was a good practice for alpine start.  the roped teams took turns leading us to the summit (navigational excerices). We had some educational stops enroute, including clipping to pickets, avoiding a crevasse, rope management, ice axe arrest. We head back to our tents and pack out and leave

Some brunch in Jak's Grill and we head back to sunny Seattle