Winter scramble North Slide Mountain

We parked at the end of the plowed road  1 mile from the bridge. It is a private parking area. In the future I recommend contacting Blackdiamond.org  360 663 2251. I think they also rent cabins.

11 hour day   7 hrs up  20 min break on summit. Individual breaks along the way after breaking trail. Around 10 miles with 4k plus of gain all on snow shoes. Came out under headlamps of course.

4 mostly mid age plus experienced mountaineers enjoyed an incredible day in a seldom explored area. After the first 1/2 mile of road we saw no other sign of human activity.  Cut thru the forest to bypass some of the road switch backs to the Suntop trail followed that up to 4k ft . Next we  followed   Fawn ridge, pleasantly forested at first eventually opening up with gorgeous views.  Bypassed the high points along the way arriving on the Summit at 14:15. 

We had  a settled well bonded snow pack with 2 plus ft of snow on top of the mid Jan crust that has been a persistent slab concern in recent avy reports.  No signs of avalanche activity in surrounding area. No problematic warning signs.  5 feet of snow depth on the lake at 5580. Over 8 ft of depth on slopes. 6 inches or so of snow shoe penetration. Pretty prime snow shoeing conditions.

The only slope  with avy potential was SW of lake at 5580. We skirted around the west side unnamed high point  6360. This is  a possible added peak for the super ambitious, or just settle for this one after all it is  20 feet taller than North slide . This potential  avy slope could be avoided taking Slides  NE  ridge. 

Moody cloud cover added to the views, Sluskin Chief, Palisades, Marcus, Skyscraper and others close by. If we had eye popping views  of Rainier, trip would have a 5 out of 5 rating.