April 17, 2010, Silver Peak

Went up to Silver Peak with a group of 8 people.  We left the Silver Fir parking lot at 9am and climbed up the Outback run to the turn off to the nordic trails.  Went past Rockdale lake to the little saddle on its SW side.  Traversed over to nordic pass and then down to Olallie Meadows.  Across the meadows, through the trees then up into the bowl.  Weather moved in and we stopped on the ridge at ~4700 ft as some rain started.  Skied back down, over nordic pass, traversed back towards Rockdale and aimed to ski down to Frog Lake but turned too soon and ended up back on the nordic trails.  Took the trails back to the top of Silver Fir.  Part of the group went down Hog Wild, the other down Outback.  Back at the cars at 4:20pm.  Stats according to the GPS track are 9.6 miles and ~3600 ft of climbing total.

Despite the forecast the weather held off nicely.  We even got some sun patches.  Snow was soft and wet but not mushy.  The creek at the bottom of nordic pass (Olallie side) is kind of a snow canyon right now.  Somehow we managed to ski almost to a snowbridge over it so that worked out.  The tree skiing on the east side of the knob NW of Mt Catherine was really nice and may hold out a bit yet.  A must remember spot for possible snow holding after storms.  It was kind of fun to ski the empty slopes of Silver Fir and the snow was not bad and even mostly untracked.  A couple bare patches near the bottom but we had the skis on the whole trip.

Another nice day with another great group of people.