Note: this was originally posted on TAY (https://turns-all-year.com/trip-reports/december-27-2015-mount-si)
Q: Is Mount Si skiable?
A: Yes, and I don’t have to it again.
I wanted to ski something I could see from my living room window, so on a whim Troy and I started planning a ski trip on the big gully of Mount Si. With the recent snows in North Bend, and then several days of clearing weather, this Sunday seemed like it was the time. It was an exhilarating experience, and now that I’ve skied exit 31 I don’t think I need to do that again.
Easy bushwhack scramble to increasing snow and up an Avy chute. We transitioned to skis at 2100′ and by 2500′ we were picking our way through dense trees, blowdown, and deep snow.
We couldn’t get snow to slide with our kick turns, and pinwheels were breaking up rather than picking up steam. The gully has a 6′ deep gouge in the middle, and it appeared this gouge saw plenty of activity since the last storm cycle.
With increasing wind loading of the main chute, and signs of recent activity, we turned around at 3100 feet and picked a safe way down. The snow was actually quite nice for the first 10 turns or so, and then started to get a heavy and thin. We transitioned back to boots after we generated sparks from our skis and walked out to find 1/2″ of fresh on the cars.
9.6 miles, 14 hours, 3244ft ascent, BW2 – 3, 20 turns.
N.B. – this line was eventually skied from the top by three local guides. See http://www.alpenglow.org/ski-history/chronology/snoqualmie.html and http://snovalleystar.com/2016/01/07/local-trio-makes-landmark-ski-descent-from-mount-si-summit
