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Cave Ridge from Commonwealth Basin

Bruno and I parked at the Summit at Snoqualmie's west parking lot, walked through the I-90 underpass, and hiked up the snowbank on the other side. There we put our skis in the rain. It reminded me of an advertisement on a Seattle Metro bus, "Customer profile #3: Skis in the rain guy", something about how PEMCO Insurance serves the needs of unique and quirky Seattle customers.

We skied up Commonwealth Basin, crossed Commonwealth Creek, then headed up the moderate ridgelet that starts at 3,800 and leads to a basin between Cave Ridge and Guye Peak. From the basin we went north too early and ascended through young trees. But eventually this led us to lovely views at the top of Cave Ridge. And a light, breakable crust.

On the way down we booted through the young trees back down to the basin. Then we made the mistake of following ski tracks and ended up SW of the ridgelet that leads down to Commonwealth Basin, on the wrong side of the gully. It suckered us with pleasant slopes, then when the gully gets ugly the slope on our side got too steep. More booting down to the basin.

We stayed on the west side of Commonwealth Creek on the way down. This was very nice skiing and led us to the Sahalie Ski Club (http://www.sahalie.org/). We skied down the club's slopes and at the bottom a very friendly, polite employee asked me to avoid the ski area in the future as it is for members only. He really was very nice, and the club looks like an excellent place for families to go, lots of kids skiing and parents hanging out.

• Date: 2008/03/08 Trip type: backcountry ski Elevation gain: approx. 2,290 feet USGS quad: Snoqualmie Pass In area: South Fork Snoqualmie Drainage Reference: Cave Ridge Car-to-car time: 6 hours 12 minutes 22 minutes driving there from Lower Queen Anne to Eastgate shopping area 39 minutes driving there from Eastgate shopping area to Summit at Snoqualmie West parking lot 3 hours 38 minutes ascending from Summit at Snoqualmie West parking lot to top of Cave Ridge 2 hours 5 minutes descending from top of Cave Ridge to Summit at Snoqualmie West parking lot

• Full sized map

• Snoqualmie Mountain from Cave Ridge

• Top of Cave Ridge

• Red Mountain from Cave Ridge

• Note to self: avoid these trees on Cave Ridge

• Note to self: stay to the left of the gully when descending!

• Guye Peak from the road above the Sahalie Ski Club