April 19, 2015, Stevens

This is a first time this year  that we've been out with our backcountry gear.. The car was ready to go and we checked Saturday's TRs and read the report by €œDOD€.  When we arrived the only folks around were folks with snowshoes.  We skinned up the Promenade trail as we usually do, but we had  to stop and remove our skis twice before getting to the base of the Tye Mill lift..  We wouldn't recommend climbing that route €“ it's melting fast.  At the lift there were lots of snow machine tracks.  We swung right and toured to the top of Hogsback Express.  It was so nice and quiet and there was no one else around.  The Lower Rock Garden trail is definitely a rock garden, but the Upper Rock Garden and Cloud 9 looked good.  We skied down the Rock 'N Blue trail which had good coverage. We then skied down the area next to the Magic Carpet which allowed us the ski to the base of the area.  It felt great to be out €“ sunny, blue sky day.