hiked  Saint Marks Summit  and did 10.0Km and 410m    Mood and date:  Nov 28, 2009 Share it on Facebook Embed it in webpage Reads:1681

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With rising freezing levels and precipitation in the forecast, I fully expected to be swimming on the trail. Lucky for us, I was wrong for the most part. The road up Cypress Bowl parking lot didn't seem too bad to me as a passenger, but we encountered two cars in a ditch despite de-icing efforts by the resort crews. The snow, both at the base and that falling from the sky, was wet when we arrived around 9:30, but as we proceeded uphill, the quality of the snow improved. Using snowshoes, we didn't sink in more than 2-3 inches, and the snow was fairy well packed, with an icy underlayer in places. The avalanche hazard didn't seem substantial at the time, but it is likely to increase as fresh snow falls on the compressed base. The trail seemed steeper to me than in the summer, possibly due to the fact that we went on and off the trail. We decided to turn around after having a snack at the viewpoint some 400m away and 30m below St. Mark's summit, having figured we had enough of a workout and wanting to get home early. Needless to say, the only thing visible at a viewpoint were the trees immediately around us. All in all, the weather wasn't too bad; the snow turned to rain only when we got close to the ski runs on the way back. Took us about 3 hours up and under 2 h down. A great exercise close to home with hot coffee waiting at the lodge.

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