June 8, Chinook Pass to Crystal Mt. Resort via Crystal Lake

On Sunday Pat and I got an early start and followed the PCT to Sourdough Gap from Chinook Pass. The traverse along the highway was half melted out. There were some sketch parts crossing avalanche runouts across the trail where it was quite slippery to bootpack or traverse across.

But once we got to sheep lake the snow was really pleasant. Nice and firm for excellent skinning traction.

From Sourdough Gap we dropped down to Crystal lake and did a circumnavigation and made our way back up to the silver saddle and then on up to Silver King. There were some portions between the saddle and the main ridge where we had to walk, but once we were on the ridge we could skin the rest of the way.

By the time we dropped into the Crystal resort from Silver King the skiing was phenomenal.

From the top of Silver King we were able to ski all the way down to the bunny slope (other than a few muddy creek crossings) before we really had to take our skis off.

Thanks to the people who helped get us back to Chinook pass.

All in all an amazing tour that I hadn't done yet and some really great weather. The route might actually be easier once the trail to sheep lake bowl melts out better. The snow above sheep lake bowl is still very thick.