December 27, 2013, Silver Peak (WA I90)

Drove as far as we could up the road - got to within a bend or two of the usual spring parking area.  Clearance and 4WD are presently required, but it might get easier the longer Old Man Winter is on hiatus...

Weather was balmy - typical "am I overdressed?" inversion pattern.  Blue skies before the inevitable incoming moist front.

We toured up through the meadows, which are thin but still passable without portage.  Skin wax would have helped a lot...

Only a few recent ski descent tracks out of Silver, which was a bit of a surprise.

Observations: no slab releases anywhere I could see.  Lots of solar erosion/loose wet off the eastern shoulder of the western ridge.  Coverage is surprisingly low in the gully: fair amount of rock exposed, and some wind-scoured ice.  Backside is wind scoured.

Hasty pit results: the NWAC snowpack discussion is dead-on.  Two significant layers; a thick but soft melt/freeze stack at ~16cm, and a fairly durable rain crust at 60cm.  No activity on compression test, but shovel shear revealed a fairly high quality shear at the 60cm ice crust.  This was at 5300' E aspect.

Winds picked up significantly by midday, with rain following soon after.  We made a hasty retreat via the road.  It did not drop below the mid 30s.

Saw nobody else on the mountain today, but there was one other vehicle parked near us when we left.