It's one of those trips that's not really feasible except when there's a ton of snow. At the same time, the snow makes it more dangerous since it's largely on a known avalanche slope. (How "known"? The railroad line at the base of the slope built a snowshed to protect their trains.) So picking the right time is critical. We got lucky and scored a blue sky day with low avalanche danger.

Since there's no trail and were no well established tracks it was "fun" from the moment we left the car on the side of the freeway. It was deep and steep, but the first section through the forest was just a slog. It wasn't until we broke out of the woods that we were tested.

The snow was not quite bulletproof, but was very hard. Snowshoes got some bite and we were able to move up the slope. Even with a low danger forecast, we were cautious until we returned to the trees. A few dozen more switchbacks and we came out of the trees again and into a gorgeous basin with untracked snow. The basin was bounded by a 200 foot high cliff and fluted snow just emerging from the shadows of the morning.

There were a few rollers coming down the steep slope so we avoided the temptation to romp through it and hugged the far side. By the time we got to the top of the cliffs it was nearly 9am and the sun was starting to affect the snow's stability. Low danger or not, we decided to turn for home after gaining the false summit of our original destination.

So did we win? We stayed safe and had fun, but didn't actually summit. I would certainly have preferred to have touched the top, but by not pushing too much we won more than had we continued on. I think. This whole winning math is hard.