December 7, 2014, Sahale-ish

Kevin, David, and I skied near Sahale on Sunday. We were able to get my bug all the way to the second gate along Cascade River Road (the one that's maybe ¾ of a mile past the Eldorado trailhead). In spite of all the naysayers we talked to Saturday night, we were able to ski within 10 minutes of the car! In terms of snow, we encountered everything from mush to breakable crust to wind scour to powder. Overall, we were pleasantly surprised by the conditions. Due to wind and some low visibility near Cascade Pass, we elected to skin the summer trail rather than straight up the gut. We were mindful of a 6-ish inch wind slab that was present in some open areas, but there was no propagation and stability seemed pretty good overall. The snow was definitely best above Cascade Pass, but we also had great fun racing the luge track on the way out.