Feb 15, 2009, Amabilis Mountain

Conditions about the same as the Common Wealth Basin trip report from today.  Since I wanted to bring my dog I left the splitboard at home and headed straight up through the woods w/ climbing snowshoes.  Eventually intersected the groomed road up and took that for a while, but booted straight up the clear cuts whenever possible.

From the summit the NE drop down toward Lake Kachess looked fun but time was short so I rode down the road and dropped into the woods down the west flank.  It was pretty tight most of the way, w/ some walking necessary in the really dense parts.  Definitely less than totally earn-worthy turns but still pretty fun.

It was 5pm when I returned to Cabin Creek, deserted enough to walk up the nordic track for 500 yards with a snowboard under my arm and a tired dog by my side.

It snowed lightly the whole time -- I'd venture that at at least an inch or two of fresh will accumulate overnight.  On top of the already skiable snow it shouldn't be half bad the next few days up around the pass.