I got off today at noon, and decided to rest and stretch before going out and I had to wait until 4PM anyways because of skier hazards.
So I went the other way from Kelly's Gap Road and took Skid Road to Downhill and I admit that that took me to far over but I was sort of scouting it out.
There was a freestyle area of the resort almost like a skate park.
It was a short hike up to Campbell Basin which is a ski lodge open during the day. From that point I knew that I would have to backtrack a little if I was going to go to the Summit House. But it was already a new adventure so I decided to trek up to Silver Queen instead.
We've seen pictures of Silver Queen from my trip to the Summit House. It is still part of the resort but the two routes are double black diamond so they were way less defined. It was not snowing at the moment but it had been snowing for three days with more coming. I had taken off my snowshoes and put crampons on for the up climb but the snow was knee deep at some places. I decided my best choice was to take the ridge up.
The route on the ridge was a bit less snowy. The summit of Silver Queen stood 7,002 ft. and there was a little rock formation that was not snow covered. The summit was pretty snowy though and I post holed a couple times. I spent my time taking pictures of Mt. Rainier at sunset and Crystal Mountain and the Summit House until I had to put on layers and decided to get going.
I was a little disappointed that I didn't take the ridge to The Throne and Silver King, but I was so snowy I had to watch out for cornices and I wanted to get down before dark. But next time.
Here is the ridge which I didn't go on from Silver Queen to The Throne and then to Silver King.
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