Eastside Highway 410 ice

[sobo]

Went out with Cragg to climb Horsetail Falls on Thursday (12/15), on Forest Road 19, just off SR 410 west of the little burg of Cliffdell, WA. It was in so I led it, then we repeated it 3 times each on TR. Got down to some nasty hooking and drytooling by day's end, just to make it interesting. Then we drove up towards Chinook Pass to Union Creek Falls. To our astonishment, the upper falls were in (it's rare) and certainly leadable on the left (WI3) and right (WI4), but there was no ice in the center of the lower half (LOTS of water). By now it was now 4 pm, getting dark, about 10-12 inches of new snow on the road, and we had been the only vehicle up the road that far (no plows yet), so we headed out. We couldn't get Friday off to go back to UC Falls. The weather warmed up considerably on Friday and Saturday, so it's probably gone by now. With all the new snow and the warming, this year shows promise for later in the season.