There was quite a temperature inversion on the west side of the mountains. It was below freezing when we met at the Woodinville Park & Ride, and getting colder as we headed up US 2 until we got to Gold Bar. From there, the temp jumped up 15 degrees before we got to Index. As we climbed up close to the pass it started cooling off again and as we crossed the summit it turned cold and was down to 20 degrees by the time we buckled on our shoes in the parking lot.
The cold made the snow CRUNCHY! Skiing wouldn't have been much fun, but it turned out to be great for the snowshoes and we made up to the ridge in record time. We crunched on over to the south side and warmed up in the sunshine while we ate our lunch. While we were sitting there I measured a snow depth of 230cm (7 1/2 ft) with my avalanche probe; there's a decent amount of snow this year, but so far it hasn't worked out all that well for skiing.
After lunch, Dan and I decided to run up to summit (yes there is a Yodelin Mountain) while the rest of the group headed down. We climbed up steeply through the killer trees (why killer trees? look at the photos) and then the ridge was pretty flat. We found a clearing with a bit a of view, called that the top and headed down.
On the way down we ran into my old climbing buddy Octavian. (You might remember him wielding a homicidal ice axe on this trip to Snowfield Peak)
Looks like he's got a new climbing partner now.
You can see the rest of my photos here on Picasaweb picasaweb.google.com/trueguides/YodelinSnowShoeTrip. Also I'll drop off a CD with Mike so he can add them to the group collection; bug him if you want to see the whole mess.
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