Snoquompton Shenanigans

When I arrived back home after my trip to Hokkaido, the PNW was at the tail end of a long cold spell. I wanted to get the last taste of the dry powder and cold temps, so I planned a last minute one weekday afternoon. An hour before, I convinced Kelsey to join me. On the way up, we decided to take a crack at Silver Peak, which has a low elevation (~2k) start west of Snoqualmie Pass. While the low elevation snowpack is not robust this year, we knew that the the surface snow was currently good at the low elevations.

We started skinning from the car, but there was only a few inches of compacted snow on the Lake Annette Trail. When we reached the P2C, we skinned over to take a look at the Humpback Creek approach. It seemed possible, but a little thinner than ideal. When there’s enough coverage, this winter approach is preferred over the trail because it allows for longer fall line skiing, and the terrain is easier to ski than a tight trail. However, coverage seemed dubious, so we returned to the trail and continued up the trail.

The old growth trees along the trail are wonderful. With the glimmering snow in afternoon sunlight, it was beautiful!

Around 2600 ft, the snow finally became deep enough that we could probably ski the trail out to this point. Below that, we would definitely have to walk out. Around 3k, the snowpack finally became decent enough to ski off the trail.

We crossed the first avy chute and saw nice ski tracks. This seemed like a decent option, but we decided to continue on and explore. We followed a skin track upwards, and then did an awful icy traverse through the trees to reach the first open slopes on the west side of Silver. We were stoked when we finally entered the open and sunlight.

On this west aspect, there was luckily no sun effect and minimal wind effect. We climbed until about 4800 ft. While the ridge was still a few hundred feet higher, we were running out of time with daylight, so we transitioned and skied down.

After the upper open slopes, we traversed right over to one of the chutes. The snow was so good here that we skied right past the trail to the valley floor. We were going to take a risk and try the Humpback Creek exit!

We found a way across the creek, skinned up a bit, and then started skiing down the valley in the fading light. There was a decent amount of shuffling, but overall, we found the exit to be much better than expected. We only had to bash through some alder at the very end. We reached the P2C right as it got dark, skinning back to the trail, before hiking out with headlamps.

Whenever temps drop and the low elevations are skiing well, I love a good “Snoquompton” adventure. While the steep slopes of the Alpental Valley often hold primo snow and good access (“Snoqualmonix”), the terrain south of I90 (“Snoquompton”) is low, burly, and often difficult to access. But connoisseurs of Snoquompton know that these low lying mountains have some of the best ski terrain around! Silver Peak is no exception, so it was great to finally ski some of this terrain in winter!

Notes:

• The Lake Annette Trail is a more sure bet in low coverage like this, but taking this trail means you cannot ski the chutes to the valley floor (or have to climb back up).
• The Humpback Creek exit worked really well. I guess the lesson is that if it looks okay from the bottom, it is actually fine.
• If trying to ski the upper west slopes of Silver from the summit ridge, I would just continue along the trail until near the lake, rather than traversing above the trail like we did. This terrain was steep to traverse.