March 18, 2006, Skyline backside, peak 5476

Rob and I cruised up and over Skyline from the Stevens Pass parking lot on Sat AM. Rob on skis, me on the splitboard, dog was amped. First out of the chute, faint tracks to follow, dusting of new snow. Dropped in on the small bowl on the backside after digging a pit with 3.5 feet of consolidating snow on top of a high quality sheer, a crust layer of granular snow. There is a load of snow in this small bowl. Made some fun turns to the drainage. We headed up to summit peak 5476 after gaining the ridge, and proceeded to get blasted for 20 minutes. The wind dropped suddenly, fat flakes were falling straight down, and the sun peaked out. Dug another pit on the sourthern slope at 5450 ft, noting 8 inches of powder that would sheer with effort on the sun crust from the prior weekend. Did a slope cut with the board on a really steep section, and cut loose a decent sized sluff, so we headed over to the more tree-populated, lower angle slope on 5476 and dropped in. Sweet turns all the way down to the drainage. We repeated run again. Headed out the drainage and ran into a couple of tele dudes who had done the ultra-steep north aspect of 5476 and looked pleased. Skinned back to Hwy 2 and hitch hiked back to the car.