Because of two business trips I had to take in March, it looked like the only time I was going to hike was mid-week between two of the trips....so I arranged with Garry to hike on Tuesday, which looked like a lot better weather than our original plan for Thursday. Driving to the trailhead it looked like it still wasn't going to be a views day, but at least it was warm and not raining. We decided on Pierce instead of our original thought of doing the Kinsmans, thinking we could avoid needing to use snowshoes. It turned out to be a perfect day for bare-booting, which we did for 99% of the hike. There was only one icy spot on the trail where we used our Microspikes, and then we took them off soon after because the sticky snow was balling up in the spikes.

I was glad we took our time and stopped to chat a lot on the way up, otherwise the timing just wouldn't have worked. When we got to the summit, this is what we saw:



It was warm though, and the sun was trying to force it's way through, so we decided to have lunch on the summit. Just as I was taking my lunch out, I heard Garry say "look!", and I turned around to see this:



It really doesn't get much better than to experience an undercast, and we both agreed that this was even better than just having 100% clear conditions. It lasted about 10 minutes, and then we headed down. Another great day in the mountains, and even though this was about my 9th time on Pierce, this hike will be really memorable.











Clouds starting to roll back in



All the pics:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bcusolito ... 3345371223

Probably the best trip report on Pierce ever. Undercast is always amazing and I agree it's way better than clear views. Seems to be a lot of those undercasts going around lately!

Super freakin' mega hyper bitchin' most excellent images Bob. Those make me want to hike Pierce again. It's been a few days since I've been up there.

Shazam!