Cloudy Cog Tuesday - 11/18/25

By Greg McMillan

I had to run an errand over by the Cog today, so I figured I would pack the skis and stop in to scope things out on my way home. I pulled into the hiker parking lot around 10 am to roughly a dozen cars in the lot. Some were hiking, some were skiing, some were being carried up on their parents back—yet all were having a good time.

I was able to skin and ski from the car with ease, a nice treat given the date on the calendar. There is wall to wall base on the trail however there are several thin and sharky sections, mostly on the steeper pitches. A nice base is forming due to the weather we received this past weekend.

Freezing drizzle greeted me midway up the mountain, which made for a buttery, flaky crust on the descent. The weather along with a low cloud deck and colder temps up high resulted in a turnaround point right around Jacob's Ladder (see cover photo).

The skiing was enjoyable with plenty of soft snow underneath said flaky crust, however, I did have to shed my glasses given they kept freezing over. No complaints here, it was a solid early season day on the hill!