April 25, 2004, Silver Peak Traverse

Two friends and I did the car shuttle, starting at Summit Central at Snoqualmie Pass and finishing at the Lake Annette trailhead.  We had about 300 vertical of no-snow walking before hitting snow on the trash-laden slopes of where Seattle learns to ski.  A person we ran into said they could barely skin all the way up Silver Fir.  Dropping over the back, there was continuous snow through the nordic trail system, and we crossed through Nordic Pass again without creek problems, and toured up Ollalie and into the Silver Peak basin.  This area was beautiful as always and we encountered one solo skiier and few climbers.  After lunch and the mini-climb to Silver's north ridge, we prepared to descend the west slope, of course after not climbing it to scope it out, and in my case on fish-scales and light boots, sort of a nostalgia thing.  At this low elevation, the combination of the solar heating and residual fresh, I think, from earlier in the week led to "interesting" snow.  The Lake Annette trail was about 70% snow-covered where we hit it at approx. 3600 feet.  The short drive and nice scenery make the quest for low-elevation residual snow worthwhile!