July 31, 2011, Spider Meadow tour

Sunday I skied 4 runs between Spider Meadow and Lyman Lake.  The snow was so good and I was drooling on it, so the first run was just a couple hundred feet long on the west shoulder above Spider Gap.  Second run was 1100' down to the upper Lyman Lakes.  Smooth, soft, so sweet.  No bugs down there.  I came back up to the pass and skied the side-hills on skiers left down Spider Glacier.  This bit was 840' and the skiing was fair, not great.  Some runnels, some sun cups.  But then came the creme de la meadow...  The east shoulder of Chiwawa Mtn had continuous smooth snow from 6240 all the way up to 7940.  That's 1700 feet of big grins visible from the campsites in the meadow below.  Best run of the day and highly recommended. 

Full disclosure: I didn't bring my ski gear in hoping for good snow.  I was in the same area last Thursday and so I knew it was going to be good.

photo 1 - the area
photo 2 - my first "chomping at the bit" run.  Spider glacier is the gully on bottom left
photo 3 - Everyone should ski this line.  I was surprised not to see other tracks.