March 22 -- Silver Peak
3/15/05
WA Snoqualmie Pass
2216
1
We started the day early, for us, with the best of intentions. Drive as far up FR 9070 as possible and ski Silver. Approaching the pass all signs looked positive,low snow levels the previous night, and some semblence of accumulation at pass level. It was that moment, for reasons unknown, that the image of our skins sitting unpacked in the basement flashed into my head. Doh!
Undeterred, we stuck to the plan, although the thought of postholing through semi-covered boulder fields squelched our ambitions a bit. Out past Hyak, a lone x/c track headed up the road and we unceremoniously trashed it beneath the tires of our gas-guzzling 'merican 4x4 to within a half mile of Windy Pass. A 4x4 with chains or a full size truck with narrower tires could probably make it all the way.
From there we wandered up through the clearcut, not really knowing the route to the north bowl of Silver. In retrospect, the topo seems to suggest following the log roads up higher than we did. Progress was slow, and the dog's whining was drown out by my own whining about forgotten skins and the uncivilized nature of postholing. I was so ashamed.
Our slowness forced us to abandon the summit and settle for turns on the slopes beneath the cliffs on the northeast arm. What appeared to be a rocky slope remniscent of my childhood days spent on the scree of suburban Connecticut turned out to be nicely skiable, thanks in no small part to the floatation of super-fat skis and a buried semi-crust. A snowpit revealed that the layer above said crust was suspect so we took due precautions, but nothing moved on our descent. Likewise, the bond between the new snow (up to 2 feet of it, in places) and the now concrete base layer (where it exists) seemed OK, although we were able to get it to slide with enough encouragement. The top 6-8" of glop seemed the most skier-triggerable though.
Anyway, after not-enough skiing we picked our way through beaver meadows to the Ollalie clearcut and back to cold beers waiting for us in the snow.
Undeterred, we stuck to the plan, although the thought of postholing through semi-covered boulder fields squelched our ambitions a bit. Out past Hyak, a lone x/c track headed up the road and we unceremoniously trashed it beneath the tires of our gas-guzzling 'merican 4x4 to within a half mile of Windy Pass. A 4x4 with chains or a full size truck with narrower tires could probably make it all the way.
From there we wandered up through the clearcut, not really knowing the route to the north bowl of Silver. In retrospect, the topo seems to suggest following the log roads up higher than we did. Progress was slow, and the dog's whining was drown out by my own whining about forgotten skins and the uncivilized nature of postholing. I was so ashamed.
Our slowness forced us to abandon the summit and settle for turns on the slopes beneath the cliffs on the northeast arm. What appeared to be a rocky slope remniscent of my childhood days spent on the scree of suburban Connecticut turned out to be nicely skiable, thanks in no small part to the floatation of super-fat skis and a buried semi-crust. A snowpit revealed that the layer above said crust was suspect so we took due precautions, but nothing moved on our descent. Likewise, the bond between the new snow (up to 2 feet of it, in places) and the now concrete base layer (where it exists) seemed OK, although we were able to get it to slide with enough encouragement. The top 6-8" of glop seemed the most skier-triggerable though.
Anyway, after not-enough skiing we picked our way through beaver meadows to the Ollalie clearcut and back to cold beers waiting for us in the snow.