May 30 , Silver Peak

Hooked up with Tom Davies, Greg Louie, and Elissa for some backyard turns on Silver Peak.

May 27, Silver Peak Basin and Lake Annette

I rolled out of bed a little late this morning.  I stayed up a little too late with the last book in the Twilight series.  About the time my first cup of coffee was ready, I received a text from Silas; "Silver Peak now?  Windy Pass road is in good shape. Steps out of Annette were put in yesterday. Easy peasy."   Well, easy peasy always sounds good, and the trails were too wet for Mt. biking.  I gathered together my gear and started driving for the trailhead.  The road was well potholed, and I tried to not bounce off into the trees.   I hit snow, perhaps a quarter mile from windy pass.  I managed to catch the Silas gang at their highpoint, the ridgeline between Silver Peak basin and Lake Annette.   We enjoyed smooth turns to slightly below the lake, approx. 1,800 feet of vertical.  Great run!  Unfortunately not very "easy peasy" to get out.   We took off our skis and started the long boot back to the top.   Snow was a little thicker as we descended the silver peak basin and visibility had gotten worse.   As we returned to our cars, everyone was quite damp from the steady drizzle.  Much better than sitting on the couch!

The long boot from the valley bottom.

Carl and Jeff  kick steps back to the top

Eric from Marmot emerges from the grey

Nov. 27 Silver Peak Basin

Did a quick tour up into the Silver Peak basin.   I was able to drive the Subie all the way to Windy Pass.  Unfortunately, I was unable to turn around, or park out of the road.  I ended up putting the car in reverse and backed up until I found a spot I could park.  After my ski,  I ended driving in reverse all the way back to the hairpin.  The road uphill from the hairpin is pretty well covered in snow.  Ollalie meadows does not have an abundance of snow.  On the way up, I started on the PCT then veered right looking for the logging road.  Had to bushwhack through the small pine trees.  On the way down I just stayed on the road, which was pretty good.  The car ruts were getting filled in with wind blown snow.  Up higher in the basin the rocks are definitely exposed.  I was able to easily ski around them, but if it snows a little, there could be great potential to shred your ski bases.  Snow was very firm with small patches of windblown snow that were okay to turn on.  Another day.

Mt. Snoqualmie on the left, Lundin Peak, Lundin Couloir,
  then Red Mt, and Mt. Thompson on the right.

Rocks in Silver Peak basin

Able to park, unfortunately could not turn around.

February 7, Silver Peak

It's always a bit of a haul out to the Silver Peak Basin.  The views always seem to make up for the extra work.  Beautiful day today.  Unfortunately the snow was extremely wind hammered and the skiing was very marginal.    But still a good day with friends.

Jesse T. carves the windslabs off the NW ridge of Silver Peak

Skiers today: Frank, Don, Val, Tom, Jessie, and Kevin

Dec 5, Silver Peak

Beautiful sunny day for a tour out to Silver Peak.  Managed to get sucked into the Frog Lakes vortex on the way home.  Still not sure why I always have to get turned around when I use Nordic Pass to get home.   Good day for a long tour.

Francine and Greg on the way up.

Jan. 8, 2010 Silver Peak

Definitely a little harder finding quality turns in the backcountry this year.  When Chris Bamer shot  me an email looking for a tour this week, I told him Summit West might be as good as it gets.  Well,  to be a little more adventurous, we headed out to Silver Peak.  Open slopes and a groomed cross country trail for access made the decision relatively easy.  We didn't find any good turns, but enjoyed the views and  got some good exercise. 

Chris with Granite in the distance

Snow conditions were firm rain runneled slopes. 

High winds kept us away from the summit. Poor snow coverage on the Annette Lake side of the ridge.

Feb. 4, Silver Peak, elev. 5,495

Frank booting for the summit. Lake Annette below

Summit shot

Looks kinda steep!

Kevin on top.

Frank skis the spring corn on the South slope of Silver

With variable snow conditions, decided to give Silver Peak a try. The approach is a little long but with a variety of slope aspects, figured we could find some good snow. Cheated a little, and took the new Silver Fir quad to gain acces to the upper cross country trail system. Followed the buff crosscountry trail all the way up to the main gulley that accesses Silver's north bowl. Gained the west ridge and looked down on Lake Annette. In previous attemps I had always been stymied in my attempts to traverse the Lake Annette side of the ridge to gain a more gentle and southerly route to the summit of Silver. Today the conditions were perfect and after a little booting we made the summit. Dropped off the South side directly from the summit. Neither Frank or I had skied these slopes. With good sun exposure turned out to be some sweet turns! Definitely neeed to come back on a powder day when the turns would be good all the way down to twin lakes. As it was we made a descending traverse back to windy pass, then over nordic pass and back to our cars at central. Frank said it had indeed been a circumnavigation of Silver Peak.