March 19, 2011, Lichtenberg-McCausland tour

Four of us came up from Lworth and ran into Kevin K. looking for someone to ski with.  After the standard Lichtenwasser Lake approach from Smithbrook Trailhead, we got to the final N/NW slope of Lichtenberg. We stopped 100 feet shy on the final 40 degree pitch to the summit not quite feeling good about the deep snow.  We had just did a quick targeted CT on a 35 degree pitch and found some layers willing to move (storm snow at 8" and then one on what appeared to be surface hoar 18" down), but with Q2 shears at best. Still, we didn't feel the need to tag the top. 
After a bit of wind effected powder near the top we got nothing but great light snow on north aspects with 6 to 10 inch ski penetration.  Same on McCausland, but anything that trended E/NE had a thin sun crust from Friday.  Our last run was the unnamed north facing ridge above Union Gap which actually had great light powder in open trees.  Then the usual tree bomb route down to the road and a fast trail ski out to the highway.