November 26, 2004, NCNP, Maple Pass

We drove through the Skagit valley and heavy rains to reach Rainy Pass and were delighted to find clear skies and sunshine.  At the start of the Lake Anne loop trail we found about a foot or so of snow with lots of open patches.  Taking this lack of coverage into account and our late start (10:15), we strapped on the snow shoes for a quick hike to Heather and Maple Passes.  The accumulation and coverage improved as we progressed, and after about two hours of brisk hiking we were at Heather Pass, standing on about 10-12 of new.  At this point we ditched our shoes and donned our skins for the trip up to Maple Pass.  It was now a little after noon, and the weather seemed to be holding, however we noticed that a few dispersed clouds were beginning to move in from the west.  We gained Maple Pass through 12-18 of new snow (the lee side), and found 6-8 of new on crust on the backside.  As more clouds carried the evenings new batch of powder in, we dropped a short run off the backside, booted back up, and then skied down toward the lake, through what proved to be a pretty heavy nearly two feet of powder in most places, which was quite a bit more work than I had anticipated.  It was worth it, I guess.  This was an excellent quick day trip off of hwy 20 that I would reccomend folks take advantage of before they close the road.  Last night and today were supposed to bring more snow, clearing on Sunday and Monday.  Get up there while you still can.  Unfortunately, I still use slide film in my SLR and dont have any to post yet.  Ill get em up as soon as I can.