May 1, 2004, Hawkins Mountain

Erik S. and I got an early start for this one leaving Roslyn at 6:15AM.  There is no snow at all on the Fish Lake road to the Camp Creek spur #138.  We hiked from the junction .3 mile to the Camp Creek jeep Trail.  Here we followed a spur road on the south side of Camp Creek till it ended, another .25 mile.  Now just head straight up the ridge on the south side of Camp Creek, it opens up quickly to an open manzanita and open Douglas fir slope.  This is a great approach.  We began skiing at 4600 ft, quickly gaining the long west spur, circling Camp Creek.  It went quick and we were on top by 10:30.  
We waited 45 min for the west face to thaw enjoying awesome views to Sloan, Baker, Bonanza, and Big Chiwaukum plus all in between.  Then we skied firm snow on the west face from the summit down to 6200 ft.  Skinned back up to the 6500 ft. point on the ridge and did the nice gully run from there into Camp Creek at 4800 ft.  Here we did a rising traverse on north facing snow below our ascent ridge.  Reaching the spur we came in on, we got 500 more vertical in the forest to about 4500 ft where we quickly booted down to our vehicle.  Snow got mushy in Camp Creek below 5200 ft.  We also noticed South slopes were already mush by 10:00AM.  A great day, this tour should hold for skiing from the summit down to say 4600 feet through next weekend.  If this weather continues, look for these west to north facing runs since it is not getting very cold at night.