April 3, 2016, Hidden Lake Lookout

All three of us had one day to spare this weekend, Sunday.  One common theme, each of us had seen and been inspired by Kenji's trip report last week. One decision, and decided if we had only one day it was well worth it.

We parked on the road probably a little further than Kenji, maybe 3000ft.  Left the car at 8:12am hiked in boots for maybe a bit less than half a mile before we put the skins and skis on.  Still some snow bridges crossing the creeks and such but we had to ditch the skis again on the trail up to the open meadow creek drainage. 

Lots of large debris on the south facing slope, looked like the entire mountainside had melted.  Encountered 2 other teams both had been there overnight. 

It was a bit icy in spots and tough to get good purchase on the skins early on but once the sun hit the upper slopes at about 10am it was great. The previous skin track was solid ice so we ditched that. Hit the summit just about 1pm and waited until about 2:30 to descend and were the last party to leave the summit (north peak).  The snow was excellent, perfect spring corn.  Super fast with a fresh warm snow wax.  Great day to be in the North Cascades!  Back at the car just before 4pm  Big thanks to Kenji for making our decision so easy.