April 15, 2003, Thorp Mountain 5854'

From I-90 Exit 80 "Salmon La Sac" head north through Roslyn for about 14 miles to the French Cabin Creek Road.  Take a left on this road #4308.  We were able to drive almost three miles to the top of the switchbacks.  From here, Erik and I found solid snow on the road to the junction with the Thorp Creek Road #4312.  Our route took us to the end of this road in 2.5 miles, through a clearcut at the end, and into a pretty open basin.  We exited the basin above Thorp Lake and dropped 200 vertical feet onto the lake.  From the lake we went northwest up another open trough. This put us 800 vertical feet below the summit.  We skirted a rock band on the southeast slope of the summit by turning left (southwest).  Then it was a quick shot to the summit on this southeast slope.  
The run has great potential following our ascent route.  Mostly open skiing, steep off the summit but then moderate cruising after that.  But on this day we found mostly rotten glop after the first exciting turns off the top.  We began the descent at about 11:45 but the snow just did not set up the night before.
In the next couple of weeks though, the approach should be a little shorter as the roads do not have much snow on them.  And it would be a fun and interesting ski in good corn.  Our total distance was 12 or 13 miles round trip, and 2800 vertical feet.  The run to the road from the summit was 1800 vertical feet of turns.