Pilchuck--April 11 after work patrol

We, my friend jd and I, parked the car where the snow begins in earnest, about 2 miles from the TH and were able to skin straight away from the car to the lookout, taking about 2 hours to get there. A fair amount of new snow had fallen though due to wind transport the amount varied from 2"-7" and consisted of a variety of types from powder to heavy to crust. Wind was blowing steadily at the summit which made for a cool-looking plume of 'smoke' boiling up and out of the Gunsight descent. On this day we chose to ski down the way we'd come up given the time of day, variable snow, and many more times to take the more fun, more scenic route. 30 minutes back to the car and cold beer and we were on our way home, glad to have been on skis rather than booting it like the hikers well-behind us. JD will post some pics later.