Norse Peak

Excellent hike today with wonderful views. Not a soul on the mountain, with the cascades, olympics in full effect. Mt Rainier was visible, as was Mt Adams, both wearing a clouded cloak. lost the trail in the snow about 5k-5500 up. ended up Bushwacking onto a meadow and just using our GPS and did a grueling straight climb up the meadow. We did reach the peak from this point. Granted, this was not the standard route due to snow cover. The peak and ridge line is still covered in snow with a couple of baby crevasses in the snowfields. On our way down we just kind of winged it, the trail along the ridge was snow covered with cornices hanging over. We just headed down into the meadow, with a few glissades. We eventually caught back onto our old trail. Luckily, for us we had a doberman and border collie that appeared to pick up our scent and we followed them. Sure enough, they took us right back to our old path and we eventually found the trail in the snow. Love those Dogs!!We saw multiple herds of elk, and not to mention many piles of elk and bear poop were scattered across the meadow we cut across. We shaved mileage, but not gain, thigh buster. Overall, it took us a total of 4.7 hours and our GPS showed that we only did 8.9 miles. Great hike and we got out just in time, weather turned bad quickly....as it can in the mountains!
All in all, great hike, with amazing views. Still a good amount of snow, be prepared to read the snow, there are cornices and crevasses along the ridge heading into the basin.