This is a trip report targeted towards back-country skiers.
Drove to the TH parking lot on Saturday night for the Mother's Day climb on Sunday. I arrived sometime after 9p and most of the parking lot of was full. Slept in my car overnight. There were a lot of folks heading out to the trail around 2:30a-4:30a to beat the heat. My advice: the earlier the better if you want to ski.
Snow starts around 1 mile in. Most people put on their skis (with skins) here. Once you get out of the forest, you'll have to take off your skis when passing over the creek. Once you get on top of the ridge next to the creek (a short walk up), you can put them back on and resuming skinning.
Technically, it's possible to skin all the way up to the summit, but it's going to be difficult. The snow was slushy making it hard for skins to grab traction on steeper inclines. I have G3 Alpinists and at one point I started sliding backwards into another lady (luckily she was super friendly and happy to help me up). I decided hiking the rest of the way up with my skis on my bag would be easier (it was). I saw a lot of other folks doing the same. However, my partner did manage to skin all the way up to the base of the false summit with just skins. Most of the other skiers who made it up that far were using ski crampons.
Despite the slush and not being able to skin up as far as I would've liked, I enjoyed the ride down and I think it was worth bringing skis. :) Especially through the treeline back to the parking lot - makes it go by a lot faster and the cruising speed gives you a much needed breeze. Just be careful of partially exposed rocks in the snow that can scratch up your ride. They should obvious and easy to avoid though.
I did observe avalanche danger (loose wet). Lots of rollers. Saw a few mini "avalanches" being triggered by skiers just traversing through steeper slopes.
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Misc:
- Weather was sunny and hot. There were no clouds and only an occasional breeze. My car was reporting the temperature to be 90F when I returned to the parking lot.
- I did not bring an ice axe and I did not feel like I ever needed one. NOTE: I would've brought it if I wasn't skiing.
- Walking in the snow in my ski boots was easy - there are lot of kick steps you can follow so you're basically climbing stairs.
- I brought all of my avy gear (probe, beacon, shovel, a partner) and I've previously completed AIARE 1. If you have ski crampons - bring them.
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