Jim Hill Mountain, December 18, 2003

Who:  Phil and Sam

We started from the Nordic center instead of going through Jim Hell or the logging roads.  The snow had a rain crust on it until 3600ft or so - just above the power lines.  From then on it is still powdery - not fluffy anymore, but kind of dense old powder, but still dry and still quite bottomless so trail breaking is difficult.  Overall very good though.  Even pretty nice in the dense trees, though its bombed out a little.
 
Unfortunately it was not really sunny there today.  A cloud hung around on Jim Hill and neighboring mountains all day - the summit was about 800 feet above the cloud deck.  Peaks to the west of the pass were all in the clear, but most everything to the east was smothered in clouds.  So we made it up to a drop in point in the north bowl, and only did a couple of short runs of 5-600ft - below that it was whiteout/fog.  The snow was very nice, only slightly wind-affected.  The fog occasionally cleared enough so we could see down to the bottom of the north bowl, which looked like an adventure in slide alder.
 
So we returned the way we came - via the long treed slope to Lanham Lake - kind of survival skiing, but as I said the snow was pretty nice even in the dense trees.
 
Didn't notice any slabiness or any signs of instability, but we didn't ski any steep open slopes.
 
The temperatures were cool - below freezing all day, and often breezy on the ridge top.

This tour is not recommended for snowboards.
Phil used his split board and while it proved invaluable for trail breaking due to it's width, the trees forced him to use them as skis on the exit as well.
 
That snow was pretty nice up there!  No sign of any other tracks in the bowl.  I guess that shouldn't surprise anyone after last weekend.

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