Well, my ski buddy Adam and I had planned to do some backcountry skiing and snowboarding up at the old Mt. Pilchuck ski area last weekend, and we took off from Seattle early Saturday morning with visions of spring t-shirt skiing (it was sunny and 60 degrees last weekend). However, as we approached the parking area we noticed things looking pretty green where we expected to be linking turns. Tough sledding for sure. So we ditched the downhill gear and strapped our snowshoes onto our packs and headed up the trail -- in the summer there is a hiking trail to the summit and a fire lookout tower. About halfway up the trail we finally hit the snow, and switched to snowshoes for the final ascent. Couldn't have been a nicer day with 360 degree viewed of the Cascade mountains from Mt. Baker to Mt. Rainier from the lookout. Looks like the end of ski season means the beginning of hiking season, which is just fine with me.
