February 8, 2003, somewhere near Snoqualmie

We decided to see what the short drive option offered. We started a little east of the pass at 2700 and when up about 3K vf. Thin cover in forest down low. We enjoyed amazing surface hoar (deep!) all the way up to 5700. We skied down a 700 ft west slope (35-40 degrees) and got decent snow on the south end in the shade of large trees - 5-8" of unconsolidated sugar snow on a carvable crust. Then we traversed over to a SW slope for some great corn, then lower down we skied tight turns through the fairy trees in 1-3" dry surface hoar on a driveable crust. All in all a surprisingly fun outing. We expected more survival skiing on the descent, but actually enjoyed the entire 3K descent. It helped that we skied down at around 3 so the warm slopes were not frozen.