March 1, 2009, Silver Peak basin, Snoqualmie Pass

We went to the pass with expectations of a wet day. Arrived in sunshine at 9:30, with winds from east and higher clouds moving in from west. Skinned up to Grand Junction and over Nordic Pass to Olallie Meadows and into Silver Peak basin. About 6 inches of loose getting-dense powder in most of the protected forest areas on the way up, with some fresh snow plastered on NE sides of trees.  Thin light wind crust in open areas. Thank you to whoever put in the skin track a couple of days before to Nordic Pass on a nice southbound traverse.  6€ heavy powder on descent from Nordic Pass to Olallie Meadows, better than quite a few other skis down through the trees there. Not crusty. No other skiers. Breezes picked up going up over Olallie Meadows, where snow was wind packed into meringue shapes, some soft, some hard but skiable, some areas down to icy crust. Easy skinning up for the most part, to Silver Peak Basin, where the four furies were in battle. Winds in stiff gusts, alternating randomly from west and north and sometimes east, to knock-down strength with blowing snow. We dug a pit on first open east facing slope (4700€™?). East facing slopes were wind packed with 2 to 3 inch slabby top, then evenly consolidating powder to about 12 inches depth where there was a thin shear layer as others have reported. Seemed stable enough where we were. We went up further and over to west facing side, with generally 3 to 6 inches of freshly deposited powder, up through trees.  Wind and the time had us turn around about half way up. Nice smooth skiing down to the meadows, then more interesting variable conditions on the lower angle slopes. Started snowing at about 3, and was snowing in earnest on the final run down to the Silver Fir base, smoothing things out. Good exercise and good day out. Saw no other BC skiers but had some nice chats with patrollers.