May 16, 2012, Washington Pass / Cutthroat

With the warmer weather, driving to the pass in time to beat the slush ends up being an early start.  We stepped onto the snow at 0800 and it would have been better to be 0700.  We skinned up the road to the trail head, and made our way up the left side of the valley working our way through the thicker timber.  The minute we stepped out of the shade into the sub alpine we knew we were going to need to keep the speed up to beat the sun. 

A beautiful day, with the occasional puffy cloud floating by to add contrast to the deep blue sky. As we worked our way into the upper part of the basin, the Needles came into view, then Golden Horn, and Tower Mountain.



And as we reached the upper end of the bowl, Silver Star.

We scrambled up to the ridge and were able to look over and see the highway.

Our little detour, with the great views set our skiing time back a little further, as did enjoying lunch and the good company.  We started down at 1230 and the snow was easing out of great, it was important to pay attention to aspect to find the best turns.  Tree wells are becoming monsters, and added some spice to our climb up, and our ski down. 


The temperature at Washington Pass was 39 when I checked it at 0300, and really for that warm we still had a great day of skiing on good snow.  As others have reported we are not going to enjoy the long spring skiing season we had last year.