Abiel Peak, as seen from the flanks of Silver Peak
The forecast looked promising for this weekend, but Elain was just getting over a cold, and I was starting to get sick. So we decided to try and scramble up Silver Peak, which we figured would be a nice short outing. The road to the trailhead was already snow-coverd, but it was packed down well enough to be passable with 4WD. It was just below freezing when we started out at 9:45 AM. The snow was already pretty deep for the first week in December, but the trail was well-trodden and easy to follow. I was dragging the pace a bit, but we made it to Annette Lake by noon. At the lake, we started ascending the forested snow slope toward Silver Peak. The snow was deep and unconsolidated, and our pace slowed to a meager 500' per hour. We swapped trail-breaking duties and by 2:15 PM, we had reached 4600'. Because we were still 1000' below the summit and I was getting some pain in my ankle, we decided to turn around. We reached the car at 4:45 PM. Although we didn't summit, we had a good snowshoe outing, got a good workout, and enjoyed a nice view of Abiel Peak from Annette Lake.
Abiel Peak, as seen from the flanks of Silver Peak
Annette Lake, as seen from the flanks of Silver Peak
Elain with Abiel Peak in the background
Steve descending Silver Peak
Elain descending Silver Peak