Amabilis Mt Road Ski

It was destined to be a late start and it got later due to the ""Everybody but all/4 wheel drives need chains"" being duly ignored by many 2 wheel drivers who then stopped in the middle of I-90 as well as on the left and right shoulders AFTER the chainup area.

It was rewarding to watch folks lying in the slush applying chains as the State Patrol wrote them tickets for traveling further without their chains.

Not sure what the snow was like until seeing the cameras at daylight showing new snow, meant I did not leave the house till 8am.

To add to the interest this day, Konigsberger (spelling) tried dissuading tourers from parking at the Amabilis snow-park (cabin creek) since they were sponsoring a race. They actually did get cars to leave and head back to Snoqualmie. As I found out later from a Kittitas Sheriff, they did not have a permit themselves for the event. And as he also informed me - if you have paid the grooming fee, you have as much right as anyone to park there, race or not.

Well, since they managed to deter or detour folks, I had the ""pleasure"" of breaking 4-5 inches of heavier new snow up to the junction where some others finally came up. The left fork was the choice for the day. I stopped and ate something while others took over. I caught them about a mile further and was hoping they planned further advance but they had decided to turn around. Leaving more breaking for my already dead thighs.

I went a bit further to just below the level part and stopped for more food. Decided to turn around after lunch. Suddenly, voices and more people to break trail. I decided to follow them after I finished eating. As I started up, somehow I had reversed left/right skis or feet, well, one or the other did not match. So I took my skis off to swap and suddenly dead center in the snow, two snowmobiles were facing me down! We managed to exchange places. While they really were smelly but polite, they did make skiing on broken track easier. I caught the other folks just as the entire terrain levels but below the true summit area.

They had enough and so did I. The sushi dinner I was anticipating seemed tempting. I turned around and probably made it down the 4 or so miles in about 30 minutes or less - a nice fast run.

On the way down, more folks finally on the way up, including some showshoers.

The conditions were pretty damn nice. The weather varied but only a little blue sky appeared and only briefly. Never really saw sun but it did get bright.

The highway was clear sailing back to Seattle ignoring the two-car accident on a wet but not icy road between Hyak and Alpental exits on the way back. Oh, yeah, that reminds me, on the way up, near Stampede Pass exit the car in front of me did a 180 without any damage.

Have a good one folks and careful driving.