April 13, 2008, Mt. Margaret

With the forecast for clouds and a chance of showers for Sunday, it seemed we might have missed the best weather for the weekend, but the clouds stayed away until mid-afternoon and the sunshine toasted us nicely and treated us to spectacular views from Mt. Rainier and the Goat Rocks to the Stuart Range and, of course the multitude of Snoqualmie area peaks. An added bonus was that the usual herd of snow machines that obviously track up the area were gone save for one group that mostly stayed their distance all day.

Our group of five (two snowshoers, two skiers, and one dog), headed up the road from the car paralleling the noisy lanes of I-90. Never having done this tour before, we stayed on the road for much to long before cutting up into the trees and now know to turn uphill as soon as one crosses the main creek or at the cabins at the latest. This fact was reinforced when I ran into a different group who was on their way down having left the cars later than us and making much better time. Oh, well. We got the bonus of more miles!

Snow conditions were as too be expected. Firm in the morning and in the trees, softening fast in the sunshine and as the day progressed. The slide activity of Friday and Saturday seemed to take away most danger though in the afternoon, slurpee-like snow started to slide easily even on small rollovers and on steeper slopes probably would have been best to avoid or at least have an escape or ourrun plan in mind.

We ditched the snowshoes and climbed through the edge of a cornice to reach the false summit (I'll mention here that I realize this is Turns-all-year, not steps-all-year, but since I would normally be skiing--I'm not this season due to reconstructive ACL surgery back in January--and we had skiers with us, I figured the outing was worth posting). Anyway, the skiers and dog stopped to enjoy their lunch on the ridge in the trees while we had ours atop the false summit.

We retraced our steps to regroup and this time turned straight down the clearcut where the skiers enjoyed buttery turns and the shoers soft, gliding plunge steps. Here a snowmobiler stopped to chat with me and I was bummed to not be skiing since he offered free shuttles back to the top. Oh, well. Not this year. Soon we popped out of the woods near the cabins and slogged the mile back on the noisy road to the car and cold beverages. Might have a few pictures to follow.