February 12, 2006, Mt. Lichtenberg

Mike and I started down Yodelin Place at 10:15; a time we hoped would give the bright sun the chance to turn the anticipated boilerplate crust to smooth corn.  We skinned down the road to the end and gave the last cabin a wide berth.  I was actually surprised to hear that some people have had trouble with the owner as I chatted pleasantly with him the only time I saw him.  We found two convenient spots to cross the stream and soon we were switch-backing smooth and softening snow under a blue sky.  It was going to be a good day.  About 500 below the summit we moved to a more southwesterly aspect and found some wind packed snow which wanted a ride to the summit on our skins.  Much pounding with poles and scraping with fingers convinced it to give up and we skinned the rest of the way to the summit.  The clouds were gathering to the northwest, obscuring Glacier Peak, but leaving a very nice view.  There was a bit of a breeze at the top, but northing the warm sun couldn't mitigate.  We saw what looked like good snow on the north face, but we didn't leave ourselves time to sample the goods.  Someone had on, Saturday skiing very nearly from the rocky summit pinnacle.  We skied very nice slightly softened wind packed snow for the first few hundred vertical feet.  It gave way to softer and softer snow as we descended.  We never found the perfect corn, but the snow was very enjoyable if somewhat soft and wet.  We greatly enjoyed cruising the open slopes and then among the young trees lower on the mountain.  All and all it was a beautiful day with better snow than we had expected to find.