April 28, 2005, Silver Peak

Wow! The meltdown is occuring fast! Pleasantly surprised how much snow is up in the Silver Peak bowls though. Drove to Windy Pass last evening and arrived about 6:30. You can still skin right from the pass (but not for long). We opted to follow a skin and doggy track (nice efficient tracking pooch) up the tree line on the clearcut, turning left by the small lake and heading up a steep gully into the basin. Wish we had time to do some yo-yo laps, but at 8 had to turn around on the upper ridge. Snow snakes abound-- Alpenglow turns charming! Thunderheads rolled in quickly after sunset, and the rain and hail was a perfect cool down as we performed the spring version of "tree skiing" back to Windy Pass.