1.5 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain •
Yesterday I had half a day to kill and when I checked the web cams from home... the pass looked nice and dry. That would soon change during the drive up, but just after exit 47 it started to get nice again and things looked promising. At first I drove by Summit West and was surprised at home much coverage was still left, but things only got worse further down. Central was patchy and thin. You could eek out a few runs if you were careful and had some spring skis that you didn't mind scratching up. I kept on driving over to Da Fir and that was definitely done for the season. Now on to Hyak....wow that hillside was bare. The warm temps certainly did a number on the face. It looked like you would have to boot about 100' past the barrel to hit continuous snow. I was looking for a car to car tour and didn't want to have to haul skis, so this was out of the question. Last stop was the forest road back to Silver Peak. I figured since I was in the area it would be worth checking out. No such luck though, there is still quite a bit of snow on the road and some downed trees. Looks like the snowmobiles have packed it down pretty good though. If I had another person and shovel with me, I might have explored it a bit further. What to do now I thought........hmmmm........ well the snow up at Summit West looked continuous and the coverage was good. So what the heck, I guess a few short runs are in order to salvage this trip. Overall it ended up being a great way to spend half the day and I just beat the rain. It was misting up top on my last lap and it really started to come down just as I got to my car. Snow conditions were okay, the top half of the mountain skied well and the bottom was heavy and sticky. This might be my last run up here for the season. Highway 20 is now open and its time to get after the good stuff before its gone. Alpental and Silver might provide some afternoon fun well into May, but it's melting fast !!!!
