Week two in a ski touring class I was silly enough to sign up for... Parked at Summit West about 7:30AM, hoofed it over the the Pac Crest Trail and skinned through Commonweath basin. Original plan was Mt Snoqualmie East Summit but ended up taking a shorter tour up toward Kendall Peak. After a couple hours of skinning, we took a break in the clearcut below the triple peak to eat and play with beacons. All beacons found and replaced, we headed up the steeper slopes toward the top of the ridge but my previously tweaked knee was bothering me from all the switchback kickturns(I suck at them) so I turned a couple hundred feet below and started putting my board together. A couple other guys went up a bit more but came down due to less than optimal conditions.

Skins off and splitboard now desplit, we bombed the heavy pow slope back down to the trees which was kind of fun(but not half a day of skinning fun). Tried to ride the traverse through forest and the iced over tree bombs which wasn't so fun. It was pretty ridiculous, only a last second grab at a tree kept me out of a creek at one point... Gave up and ended up booting the last half of the way out which wasn't fun either but was more efficient. Got back to West about 4:30PM.

Snow was 4" of heavy pow on top of consolidated mank. It was a little better up above 4,500 or so but it was still heavy. Dug a pit about half way. There was a soft layer about a foot down, probably facets underneath the old rain crust. Got a pretty clean shear on the first tap from the elbow, consistent results on a repeat test. Lots of point releases all over the place but nothing deep.

I forgot my digicam but did manage to have a little fun with my Holga:

Kendall Ridge

Learned a few things:
1) Long ski tours are not my thing. Too much up, not enough down
2) Riding a splitboard in AT boots and plate bindings is fantastic for the skin up
3) Riding a splitboard in AT boots and plates sucks for the ride down
4) Splitboards are cool, rock in pow, and good at going straight up due to the wide skins but skis are probably better for anything else. Good thing I only want to surf the pow.