Despite weather and avy reports, my buddy and I kept our scheduled day off for a trip to the slides. Without out super flexible schedules you get what you can take. A little rain dampened everything but our spirits.
Left the parking lot around 8:15 and the slow, wet, snow shoe trail breaking progress had us to the first aid cache below main gully in just over 3 hours, after a little lunch proceeded to bottom of the run-out by around 12:15 where signs of active shedding were obvious. Main gully was in the clouds pretty much the entire time we were up there but they thinned out once and ice bulges were plainly visible above the choke.
Debris zoomed in
Picture from where we stopped (Most likely still higher than we should have been)
Transitioned to boards and began the ride back down. Top flatter section was tough with the slow wet snow, had to transition from snowboard to shoes a couple times doing our best not to leave too many divots in the trail. Once constant pitch started things went a little better but kept pretty much to the snowshoe tracks to maintain any speed.
Trail out appeared to have decent coverage but I imagine no where near what it should have for this time of year. No apparent land mines and did not hit any when i was able to get out from our packed trail.
Cloud deck hovering along wildcat's summit
Saw a couple of others snowshoeing on our way down and a hand full of guys skinning up. The added skin tracks also helped maintain speed.
All in all a great day. Any day in the woods is better than a day in the cubical. First time to the slides and look forward to going back when the weather is nicer and can top out.
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