November 19, 2012, Mission Peak

I'm not sure what I was thinking, but I decided to take a quick tour above Clara lake, and see how the snow was holding up with this rain, and warm temperatures.  It was very windy, a check of the telemetry when I got home had the wind averaging. 70+ with gusts above 100, on top of the mountain.  It was raining sideways, and my biggest worry was a tree blowing down.  In the parking lot there was about 6 inches of saturated snow, and it gradually increased to around 10 by the time I made Clara lake (~5500) and still raining.  It was just starting to be snow at 6500 and I had really seen more than I wanted to, by then, the only why I could have been wetter, was to be bigger.   There was enough snow to ski (average 15" or 16"), but the viz, and weather conspired to break my will and I retreated.  As everyone in the PNW loves to say, we are building a good base!