May 16, 2004, Silver Peak
5/16/04
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2573
3
We headed out with the intention of skiing Ingalls, but some blue sucker holes at the pass followed by drizzle and darkness to the east as we got into Easton combined with various reasons among us to get back early led us to see whether the snow was right for a quick trip from Windy Pass up to the Silver Peak north basin. Sure enough, we drove up to just short of the pass, and could skin virtually from the car (with a few dirt hops in the first few hundred yards. There's a continuous band of snow along the clearcut/forest boundary, but it is going fast for sure. The upper basin area was still nicely covered, though some of the shallower areas along the edges have melted out.
We enjoyed the view of the inside of a cloud from the upper ridge. Watson hung in the lee of some rocks while Paul and I found that there's a nice social trail that makes easy work of the route up to the summit - I'd always thought it would be more of a scramble than a hike. Nevertheless, we stopped just short at the cool notch below the summit since it was fun to look at and the summit promised to be cold, windy, and whited out.
We did two laps of the basin on nice firm corn, traversing a lot to catch little steeper shots.
It was a nice low key outing with a short drive and quick access to snow.
We enjoyed the view of the inside of a cloud from the upper ridge. Watson hung in the lee of some rocks while Paul and I found that there's a nice social trail that makes easy work of the route up to the summit - I'd always thought it would be more of a scramble than a hike. Nevertheless, we stopped just short at the cool notch below the summit since it was fun to look at and the summit promised to be cold, windy, and whited out.
We did two laps of the basin on nice firm corn, traversing a lot to catch little steeper shots.
It was a nice low key outing with a short drive and quick access to snow.
Nice one, Jim.
Do you recall what elevation you parked at?
Do you recall what elevation you parked at?
I didn't check the elevation, but it must have been no more than 100 vertical feet below Windy Pass itself - we could have hit it with a decent slingshot aimed from the car.
I didn't check the elevation, but we couldn't have been more than 100 vertical feet below Windy Pass - we could have hit it from the car with a well aimed slingshot.
One more note - the lower clearcut was mostly just skiing and not fun for turns (other than a few of the little drops off the various knolls along the way) due a minor maze of small trees and fallen logs, but it did go fast anyhow. The basin is where the fun turning is at this point.
One more note - the lower clearcut was mostly just skiing and not fun for turns (other than a few of the little drops off the various knolls along the way) due a minor maze of small trees and fallen logs, but it did go fast anyhow. The basin is where the fun turning is at this point.
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