My friends first time. (Summit east?)

I'm taking a friend out tommorrow (12/16) for his first foray into earning turns. I was thinking Hyak would be a great place to practice with his new Rando set up. He's an intermediate skier who has never skinned before. Does anyone know what the condition of "beer can hill" is? Have they packed it down with a cat? Groomed it? Is there good coverage? Or is it still wild snow? I'm trying to come up with a place with little to no exposure for a positive experience on the first day out. Any suggestions?

Summit East or Central would be an excellent location. I would expect that they may be packing Summit Central before East. Central has a more gradual ascent than East.

There were numerous folks skiing Hyak yesterday, and it was in decent condition. Many terrain features still evident (small creek beds and the like) but nothing problematic. There was a cat driving around at the bottom grooming at bit for the skate skiers, but when we left at noon, they had not packed the new snow on the mail hill. It seemed that the slope had been packed sometime prior to this storm, however. This made for nice skinning, but somewhat shallow turns on the trail. Just off the sides, however, it was considerably deeper.

There has been no packing of the Hyak hill this year other then the natural packing done by the pineapple express a while back.

There is about 14" on top of the firm snow from the first storm. I've seen many people doing the hike and ride back down and I'm sure the conditions should be just fine. I was hoping to hike up today but I only had enough time to get some shoveling done before I had to leave (other commitments).