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      Only the first weekend of January, and already it has been an incredible winter. Incredible in terms of the quentity and quality of snow that has fallen in the past month, and incredible in terms of the number of people who have suffered because of that snowfall. I believe the fatality total has reach double digits in the Pacific Northwest, making it one of the worst winters recorded here. Naturally, we decided to exercise caution this weekend with another foot or two supposed to fall.
      On Saturday, we went to Mt. Catherine -- a small peak at Snoqualmie Pass with a safe approach and nice, moderate-to-low-angled tree skiing. Andy tried to bring Tundra along, but they wouldn't allow him on the cross-country trails, so Andy had to put him back in the car for the day. Tundra wasn't too happy about that. We took the Hyak lift up to the top and skied down the other side to the x-country trails and skated around to the base of Catherine. We broke trail through several inches of new snow, putting in a track that gradually ascended while traversing to the west. We reached the steeper slopes flanking Catherine and dug some test pits finding that the snow on the northern slopes were pretty stable. The top 8 inches sloughed off easily, but not in a slab, and the rest of the pack would not budge off of the crust 3 feet down without considerable effort.
      After climbing the rest of the way up to the summit ridge, we took two laps through the trees. The snow was nice & fluffy, although the slough ran pretty fast and heavy on steeper slopes, and required attention. It was already getting late in the afternoon when we finished our second lap, so we headed back to Hyak and skied out. The sudden transition to the hardpack in the resort was tough to get used to after all the soft snow in the backcountry, but we managed to slide our way out. I tried out my 2006 K2 Anti Pistes for the first time in the backcountry, and they were super fun in the snow, but they seem like they might be a bit too much ski for me in the backcountry. Might have to get those fancy new Anti Pistes that are over a pound lighter per ski!
      On Sunday, we went to our old faithful, Yodelin at Stevens Pass. There were quite a few other skiers out, including Ema with a couple of her friends. Someone put in a great skin track on Saturday or early Sunday. Stability was very similar to Catherine, but without the top layer sloughing. We took two laps through the trees, where the occasionaly tree bomb under the new snow kept us on our toes, then hit the clearcut for one rando rally lap through 8 inches or so of nice unaffected new snow on a firm base. Went back up one more time for our exit out the front side, hitting the road shortly after 2 to beat the Stevens traffic. Snow depth was great all the way to the parking lot -- the switchback shortcuts were in great shape. Fantastic day out. Yodelin seems to take a lot of traffic pretty well -- despite all the people, we didn't cross many tracks. More importantly, Andy made amends with Tundra and is back in his good graces.