Jan 31 Chiwaukum, took my skis for a walk

Went out towards big chiwaukum in search of good snow at hight elevations and on the east side of the crest. White pine road is plowed to the cascade meadows camp but the road is covered in 1"+ of  glare ice. good tires and chains are highly advisable. We skinned the rest of the road to the white pine creak trail head, although in hind sight we could have driven this section with chains. Once at the TH we put our skis on our backs and started hiking because there is not more than a 100' continuous section of the trail with snow. Also the trail is graced with the previously mentioned glare ice. We really wished we had crampons. After about 4 hours of slowly walking up white pine creak and trying not to fall on our faces we got a good view up the valley at the rather bare chiwaukums. Deciding that it wasn't worth hiking another 4k of vertical and then walking out in the dark we turned around with skis still on our backs. All and all it was a nice hike but this area needs a fair amount more snow before being worth the trip out there. Perhaps it is time to shave my winter beard, maybe then snow would fall just to taunt me.