November 17, 2002, Green Mountain, North Cascades

Here it is as promised.  Arrived at the trailhead surprised to see another party of two getting ready.  They left before we did, and except for hearing their voices in the fog later in the day, we were completely alone.  Snow level Sunday morning was just about the elevation of the trailhead (3500ft), with a coating on the road and in openings in the forest.  We hiked the trail upwards, switched to skins around 5000ft (although there was enough snow to skin on the trail before this, walking was more efficient).  We skied past the lake and to the bottom of the bowl leading up to the lookout.  Several feet of snow here, perhaps 5300ft.  Clouds had rolled in, reducing visibility to minimal, but we trudged upward anyway.  Ate lunch around 6100ft on the ridge west of the summit, found a pocket of excellent snow as the clouds parted for a moment and made about 700ft of excellent power turns.  Snow varied from slightly-wind-packed-not-quite-slab to moderately heavy powder, all enormously enjoyable.  We re-skinned at the bottom and went back for another, enjoying each and every turn.  Skied the trail out until we began to fear for our bases and walked contently back to the car.

Some relevant info for those who've made it this far:  snow depth increased astronomically between say 4800 and 5500 ft, from about 6 inches to 2+ ft, consistent with the posted freezing levels thus far this mediocre early season.  Around 5500 ft in wind protected terrain, the very bottom of the snow pack was supported by an ice crust, verified by repeated pole probes (we didn't dig down though).  The meadows above this varied from several inches of an ice crust on grass to deeper wind-deposited snow.  There was some avalanche debris that perhaps slid on this crust sometime before last weekend's snow event.  It appears the snowfall last weekend was accompanied by a fair amount of wind.