June 9, 2012, Silver Peak

Soggy low hanging fruit is the best kind.

FS Road 9070 is still blocked by snow drifts just past Mill Creek.  The long stretch of road near the valley floor, before the first switchback, has a bunch of drifts as well, but I expect these will melt out faster than the remains of the Mill Creek drift.  A few warm days will clean them up pretty well.

Above the switchbacks it's mostly clear sailing until you hit continuous snow below the SW shoulder of Catherine.  From there, 4-5 feet in the meadows and plenty of snow in the north bowl of Silver promise plenty of good skiing up there for a while yet. 

Andy and I did a whiteout lap with the dogs off of the NW ridge on 2-3 inches of smooth, fresh snow, very well bonded to the older snow beneath.  Visibility was crap and there was a strong, cold wind, so we skied down the TNT couloir (I think) and over to the meadow on good, rain-soaked snow. 

Glided down the road a lot less than we'd have liked, then booted, then hit the Aardvark for a snack before getting back on the road.