Ptarmigan Traverse in May?

When is the PT best attempted? Some friends are coming out and looking for an adventure, and this has been on my tick list for awhile. We're looking at the last week in May right now. When does Cascade River Rd typically open, my guess is later than that? This season seems to be about as snowy, maybe a bit less, than last. Anyone remember when it opened last year?

Also, does anyone know how the Suiattle River Road fared through the floods?

Typically, you should be able to drive at least to the Eldorado lot by much earlier than May (the past few winters, it's been good all winter, but this year we seem have a decent low elevation snowpack). It won't be open much beyond that for a long time, since the bridge across the river washed away.

Suiattle is closed at MP 12.5 due to a washout (and snow). What's Downey Creek at ... 20 something?
Maybe a creative bike shuttle could work.

The bailey traverse may be a better bet for you. The Ptarmigan would be pretty committing right now, especially if you took an alternate route other than coming out the suiattle. As for the best time of year, it depends if you are skiing.

...or the Isolation Traverse, climb up by Eldorado, ski out by Diablo..

hoping to do that one this spring.


re- the Ptarmigan....i'll voice what is probably an unpopular opinion in this forum
after hiking the PT last July, I removed 'must ski Ptarimgan Traverse' from my to-do list....its a lot of steepish sidehilling above even steeper terrain and unless you are planning to add time into your schedule to climb and ski some of the adjacent peaks (like Dome), I thought it was actually far more pleasant to just hike the darn thing and keep the pack and footwear light.

We would be skiing.

What is the Bailey Traverse?