Started out from the upper Sno-Park (near Lodge 1), hiked up 131/130 to North Summit Road, and then cut up some of the ridge between the road switchbacks to avoid walking a longer way. I didn’t know what the official trail was once I got up to Bald Knob, which is why I meandered so much more around the trees—well, and the snowmobile tracks were so much more compelling after pushing heavy windswept powder with rain crust on top. Some of the spots I cut through would be considered runs on the backside, but I wasn’t worried since the snow was relatively low coverage, icy, and the entire backside was shutdown due to lack of snow. I tried to stick to the trees to avoid mucking up some folks’ down track.
I didn’t travel across groomed trails so I didn’t think the uphill season pass was required today; I didn’t plan on going back down through the resort. That being said, if more normal ski operations had been in effect, I would have purchased an uphill season pass in advance (or maybe along the trail 😅).
There were 2 new trees down along trail 131. A small handsaw could dispatch both of them, but they can be bypassed over the snow easily without negatively impacting the vegetation/terrain. I cleared some branches off the tread so it’d be easier for folks to skin up.
Most users were snowshoers, but there were some splitboarders and skiers skinning up as well.
Staying on the beaten path was easy, but once I got off of it I was sinking down 1’-2’ in areas without tails. It probably won’t be long before normal ski operations start up with the snowpack the way it was.
The ridge/summit was super icy/windswept. It was really cool to look at.
I hope I get a chance to come back and carve some turns this season. It was a fun, fruitful visit (number 3 of 4 lookout summits this trip).
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