We left the Rainy Pass trailhead at 12:15pm. The trail was in good condition to Heather Pass and completely snow-covered. We saw a handful of hikers, snowshoers, and skiers -- we were grateful for our snowshoes but jealous of the skiers!

It seemed like most of the non-skiers had been turning around around Heather Pass. (And from this point on, it would have been extremely hard going without snowshoes or skis.) Soon after passing Heather Pass, the trail disappeared. We decided to try to get to Maple Pass, but to make it back to the trail by sunset (4:50pm). First, we traversed a moderate snow slope (during which we decided to sign up for an avy course soon...). Then we departed from the summer trail and turned right, heading straight up to the ridge that Maple Pass is on. (Continuing on the summer traverse would have meant a sketchy-looking traverse.) The going was very tough in snowshoes -- lots of powdery snow, with a bit of breakable crust thrown in. We hit the ridge a bit north of Maple Pass, at coordinates 48.50610, -120.76879. To this point we'd had great visibility, but there was a cloud parked on this part of the ridge so we didn't get any views to the west.

Descending back to the snowfield traverse sucked. We tried taking off our snowshoes and plunge-stepping, but we were sinking in to our waists every few steps. We were grateful to make it back to Heather Pass with a few minutes of daylight to spare. The return trip was glorious -- we had the place to ourselves, and we got great sunset colors and then a full moon. We only needed our headlamps once we were in the forest.

Our car was the only one still there when we returned at 6:30pm.

Snuck in one last larch hike for the season with a sunrise hike up to Maple Pass on 10.21.25.

ROAD: The road was clear and fine for any car. We parked on the shoulder at Rainy Pass.

TRAIL: I used microspikes from the start. There was a good bootpack of compact snow and ice, which was firm at 5.30 a.m. when we began our hike. The bootpack was easily followed until we got closer to gaining the ridge up to the ridge at Maple Pass, where some snow had drifted over the track.

It looks like most people opted to turn around around shortly after the pass. There were tracks leading further on but it was not as established - mainly deep post-holes. We decided it wasn't worth forging on without snowshoes so, like the masses that had come before, we turned around and hiked back the way we had come.

There were a few hardy larches still clinging on to golden needles, but winter is definitely the vibe in the North Cascades right now. The sunrise was a bit muted but still beautiful in a glorious setting and we thoroughly enjoyed the complete solitude we had on such a (normally) very busy hike!

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Probably one of the last days of larch season for 2025 - we showed up at around 2pm, parking lot was open and mostly full but we were still able to get a spot. Went up the trail counterclockwise, ran into a few groups but pretty quiet overall. Trail started out muddy, then quickly turned into slush and later on full snow as we went up in elevation. Lots of rain, sleet, and snow as we traversed through the trail. Still a few larches hanging on, but likely not for long as the storm was rolling in. Microspikes definitely a must, since trail was frequently slippery due to snow and ice. Trail markers were very handy at the top since snow covered footsteps quickly. Parking lot completely empty by the time we made it down as sun was down. Conditions were cloudy so visibility was low. 

We wanted to get in one final backpacking trip before winter fully hit, and tried to time it with the larches. The larches were at the tail end of their life but the snow wasn't too hard to manage. It was a great way to test warm gear though! https://youtu.be/sLMNzVn6m3s

The trail from the parking lot to the split off of Heather-Maple was very easy to follow. The 10,000 people that went through for the larches kept it clear of snow and nice and muddy. At the split, the snow was consistent so we used some traction all the way to Wing Lake.

The boulder field took awhile to maneuver through, we didn't want to punch through any gaps in the rocks. Once at Lewis Lake, the route is very straightforward up to Wing Lake.

There was enough snow at the lake for us to create a tent pad and use deadman anchors to keep the tent down. The wind was pretty rough and the temps were in the teens, but overall it was a really pretty night. The next day we got out just before a bigger snowstorm came in.

Larch needles on snow like cinnamon on a foamy coffee