January 14, 2017, Silver Peak east gully

My team got a lottery entry into the patrol race, so we decided to get acquainted with the start of the course. We departed from Summit West on a very clear and cold, inverted morning and picked up the PCT, passing by lodge lake. We were surprised to find some shooting cracks and hollow sounding windslab hundreds of feet below the ridgeline in a treed, ~25 degree WNW aspect. It had some energy and good shear quality on quick tests so we elected not to cross the power line clear cuts and scree slopes and crossed back over into Summit Central.

We cruised down to Windy Pass on the XC network and followed the PCT along the east side of Silver Peak, finding widespread small surface hoar crystals and NSF in all areas including in some sun-exposed clearings from 3100'-4100'. We descended the first east-facing slide path/gully in fun, soft conditions in dwindling light. The trees get a little awkward in a couple of spots but there are also a couple of long open shots 1000vf down to the smaller Twin Lake, where we skinned back up on an abandoned road to meet the XC trail and cruised back down to Hyak for convenient shuttle service.