AlpineK Posted March 25, 2012 Share Posted March 25, 2012 (edited) Trip: Mount Snoqualmie - Crooked Circus Date: 3/24/2012 Trip Report: Jeff Hansel, Cman and I have been drooling over an aspect of Mount Snoqualmie we forgot to ski or didn't know about. The route, Crooked Circus, starts by descending the upper parts of the Crooked Couloir. Before the crux of the crooked you traverse northwards to a couloir, and then shred. Jeff and I went to ski it a month ago. We found about an inch of frozen/unbreakable crust. After a few turns we started getting mental images of certain death when things got really steep. That time we bailed and skied the Phantom. Cman and Jeff returned and skied it in thick clouds last weekend. I couldn't due to commitments, and I didn't like it when I heard they had skied it. I called Dave Parker and told him that's what I wanted to ski. Jeff didn't seem to have a problem skiing it again. The forecast looked good this time. Poor visibility on the previous weekend inspired him to return for better views. The night before another friend called and joined the party. We got a slacker start at Alpental and ran into lots of folks out to ski the Slot. While climbing near the waterfall we ran into fresh boot marks in the skin track. My first comment was, "fucked idiots," Dave wasn't impressed either. Since we'd caught Wayne W booting in skin tracks the year before, Dave commented, "It better not be Wayne." Of course it wasn't We ran into a couple snowboarders on one of their first backcountry skis. Dave was sort of nice, as was I after my initial reaction. Maybe some good etiquette got passed on, who knows. We found a nice skin track above the boot track. Skies were grey and with a bit of wind on the summit. [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-GddhSV5AOPg/T2-EBR9QxtI/AAAAAAAABt8/OSnbMlnHu1c/s1280/1a-Sno_Summit_2012-02-24_Pa.png[/img] [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-Vnv8VtBV8ak/T2-EJJ31FJI/AAAAAAAABuM/QnDo1mH_7rs/s1440/2a-True_Sno_Summit_2012-03-.png[/img] Off the summit there was some windpacked powder on the north facing bowl, but it got nice as we skied down the upper part of the Crooked couloir. Above the crux of the Crooked [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-SGAbrj_oWpI/T2-Fn2-SDHI/AAAAAAAABuk/_qYYIfC8jVU/s640/4a-Crooked_Dir_2012-03-24_P.png[/img] At the top of the steepest section of the Crooked we traversed northwards under rock towers. Looking back at the upper Crooked [img:center]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-iqRie0Q_Qpg/T2-E_n_UGtI/AAAAAAAABuc/BaQQldHI2UI/s640/5a-Circus_Trav_2012-02-24_P.png[/img] Partway along the traverse [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-cYHmNCYvk0I/T2-FptczH8I/AAAAAAAABuo/OMA_m6JGoks/s640/6a-ENH31-2012-03-24_C_Circu.png[/img] After more traversing we got to a place with a great view of Snoqualmie and this rad couloir. Apparently on the previous weekend Jeff saw the couloir and said something like. "Look at that awesome couloir... We should ski it!" Cman responded, "Jeff, that's the Slot. You've skied it a few times." It was a nice view for sure [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-RXAZF_AIE6A/T2-F2XSUODI/AAAAAAAABu0/jrKb45sZ84U/s640/7a-Slot2_2012-03-24_Panoram.png[/img] The traverse continued. Steep slopes and good views of Chair and Snow Lake [img:center]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-mqUDN4vNYAo/T2-GXtCBucI/AAAAAAAABvE/ybxcH9dE7CQ/s1280/8a-Couloir2_Trav_2012-03-24.png[/img] Eventual we reached our destination [img:center]https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/-K9LbfUF3jEM/T2-CV-cLLTI/AAAAAAAABtc/uPArvMOjyxk/s640/11a-Desc_Couloir-2012-03-24.png[/img] The couloir had more than a foot of nice powder Dave Parker [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-mmkA-ccaEYU/T2-BzgMqkiI/AAAAAAAABtU/F8a2eJT5Ymo/s912/12a-ENH58-2012-03-24_C_Circ.png[/img] A Blitz [img:center]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-cUYxSi8l8W4/T2-CX7IMeKI/AAAAAAAABtk/8AN4mG08SM0/s912/15a-ENH62-2012-03-24_C_Circ.png[/img] View Up [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-DR-K7Es88_w/T2-Bt-qNuvI/AAAAAAAABtM/Oy7ESHPkXBY/s912/14a-ENH65-2012-03-24_C_Circ.png[/img] Towards the Middle Fork [img:center]https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-HCzs-kZOxv0/T2-CvjRd4HI/AAAAAAAABts/Jnvr9bTjmk0/s912/16a-ENH66-2012-03-24_C_Circ.png[/img] Looking back at the line and sweet powder [img:center]https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/-TjpmDV8Q0eE/T2-DXi8WRMI/AAAAAAAABt0/cpjVTfCQU9E/s912/17a-ENH67-2012-03-24_C_Circ.png[/img] Unfortunately the line drops you lower than either Slot or standard Crooked. Judging by the number of Slot skiers the extra work was worth it. Still it was nice to get back to a packed down skin track. [img:center]https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-zSKc8uSns5A/T2-ECjr3tHI/AAAAAAAABuE/sEazWLnOvms/s912/18a-Standard_Exit_2012-03-2.png[/img] Skiing on the Phantom was fine. The slope is wide open with a deep snowpack. We found some nice proto-corn snow. Gear Notes: A bit icy on the uptrack, but we didn't use ski crampons Approach Notes: The first couloir you come to traversing to the Crooked Circus is skiable if you bring a harness, rope, and rap anchors. Edited March 26, 2012 by Feck Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
E-rock Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Killer! Looks like an awesome day out, Kurt! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanl Posted March 26, 2012 Share Posted March 26, 2012 Here's a good shot of the ramp system to get to the top of the Circus. Might as well take all the adventure out of it.... And here's a close up of you, imagine: I saw some folks-- you?-- on top of snoqualmie a bit before. Probably and hopefully some foreshortening going on : Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AlpineK Posted March 28, 2012 Author Share Posted March 28, 2012 Judging by the traverse there's still adventure. Conditions in lean snow years don't match the fat ones. Cool close up shot! We never went to the true summit of Snoqualmie, so that photo ain't us. I did see that cornice and it raised my attention level. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
counterfeitfake Posted March 29, 2012 Share Posted March 29, 2012 I was up there that day, to ski the Crooked for the first time. What a good call for the day!! We probably summitted around 11. There were two guys in patrol jackets who skied just before us, it looked like they had the first tracks of the day. I'm told that the usual entrance is right off the summit but with those cornices we had traversed to a little notch a couple hundred feet away. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jamie Posted April 3, 2012 Share Posted April 3, 2012 Really really nice pictures. What a fantastic place to be this time of year. Thanks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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