April 23, 2005, Castle Peak saddle, Tatoosh, MRNP

We arrived at the busy Paradise parking lot about 8:30, to warm temps and moderate drizzle.  We hoped for snow on the road down to Reflection Lakes, but aside from 15 feet of snow that they left at the very top at Paradise, it is completely plowed.  Good for bicycling?  Oh well.  We got a little downhill action paralleling the road but the gliding opportunities were limited severely by the saturated styrofoam snow.  There were numerous small wet loose surface slides visible from the road.  The coverage from Reflection Lakes to the Castle saddle on the Tatoosh ridgeline was perfectly adequate, just a month or more advanced.  We took the most conservative route ever up through the transition from the lower ridge to the main basin, and then threaded up through the trees on east side of the bowl.  Howling wind on top and intermittent squalls.  A pair of snowboarders was building a kicker jump down in the bowl.  The descent was rather like surfing in Slurpee slush.  The upper part was still fun, and the generally low-angle slopes and numerous anchors were reassuring.  We watched a boarder jump and harmlessly wipe out in the bottomless mush.  It rained again as we hiked up to the car. Perhaps all in all a day that desire trumped reason.