February 29, 2004, Silver Peak Basin

I went with Jim, Deborah from the WSTC and we used the Hyak chairlift for first bit and then groomed XC trails to the upper end of "Rockdale Bowl".  Followed the old blue diamonds through the woods to Nordic Pass.  Snow in the woods leading to Nordic pass was crusty and wet. Descending from Nordic Pass to Windy Pass was "interesting" due to trap crust in the trees.  Zipped up groomed tracks to top of the clear cut and then skinned up the west side of the basin to the high point in the basin (5150ft by altimeter)

Slopes leading to the NW ridge were streaked with snow donuts, so we opted to descend from there down the gentler slopes of the west side of the basin.  Snow conditions were challenging with 3-5 inches of heavy, sticky snow on top of trap crust.  But we still had an enjoyable descent throught the basin.  We then skied down to the bottom of the clearcut and picked up the groomed trails to return to Hyak via "Grand Junction".