Pilchuck: Gunsight Scary!

Short version: My first and last Gunsight run of the year.

Road still closed, but the concrete and boulders are removed so may open soon. All trees removed so easy bike ride almost to trailhead (which is melted out). Bottom of the skier's route melting out fast - I ended up booting the whole way to save my skins from the sloppy pollen coated snow since there was a good bootpack from previous hikers.

 Plenty of snow up high and Larrison looked good so I was disappointed in how much of the lower Gunsight had melted out. A couple inches of new mush led to slow jump turns, sluff managment, and side slipping. A fall could have been very nasty. Had to take skis off to scramble across the rocks at the bottom. Fog enveloped the north side when I got up to the ridge so I skied the gully by brail. Waterfall route provided a few nice turns. After climbing out of the gully I only managed to ski down a couple hundred feet then booted back down to my bike.