After Saturday's storm there was a TON of fresh snow at the Pass so we headed up early to visit Hyak Lake. The Hyak overflow lot was mostly empty at 7am (full when we returned around 11am) and the plows have been working hard to keep the roads drivable. The road walk was easy and the snow bank where you leave the road has a cut to get up.

Snowshoes are required immediately with over four feet of snow. We used the wider log upstream to cross the creek and then *tried* to follow the diamonds with mixed results. New snow meant we were sometimes successful and sometimes completely off track. Honestly, though, that's one of the reasons I love snowshoeing and this trail in particular. You can go pretty much wherever you want and as long as you can navigate, you're in good shape.

We broke trail, jumped on someone else's trail, diverged and broke trail again. Early season means there are still lots of spots where we wallowed and there was even some open water for the dog.

Since Hyak wasn't running there were no downhill skiers and in fact we saw no skiers. The route crosses two usually-groomed tracks so when it is being skied, be aware and try not to damage the tracks.

The lake is almost completely frozen and covered and there were tracks heading out across and up the far side toward Surveyor's Lake. It felt a lot colder at the lake than in the trees so we didn't linger long.

Hiked up the Nordic Pass Trail from Silver Fir to Hyak Lake. Parked in the Silver Fir lot beside the EV chargers. Not sure whether this is technically allowed or not but the snow plow driver who was clearing that lot said it was fine :). No one else parked in the lot so plenty of space. Never saw anyone outside our group besides the plow drivers at the parking lot.

Trail almost entirely covered with at least a couple inches of snow, just a couple odd dry patches or some of the creek. Depth ranges from a couple inches under trees to the upper crossover where we were postholing up to our knees in spots.

Awkward time of year to do this it turns out as the trail is hard to follow under all the snow but it's not deep enough to just snowshoe over the top of all the underbrush. Be prepared to hone your navigation skills and do some bushwhacking. Note that the blue markers seem to be the winter route and will lead you through all the brush, so aren't necessarily helpful for finding the trail besides making sure you're in the vague right area. If you try to follow our meandering tracks, enjoy the adventure :)

We didn't use snowshoes on the way up -- would have been useful in spots like the upper crossover but it was short that it wasn't worth putting on just for that. We put them on at the lake I guess just to justify bringing them and wore them until we crossed the upper crossover. Not necessary at the moment though.

From upper Hyak parking lot, we set out around 8:15 and followed the ski trails up to eventually gain the Nordic Pass Trail and followed the blue diamonds on the trees to Nordic Pass. Several inches of fresh snow covered the formally-groomed ski trails and we were breaking our own trail up to Nordic Pass. At the pass we passed some cliffs and steep slopes on Mt. Catherine to our left and then began to head up to gain the west ridge. As we went up we stayed a bit to the right to avoid steeper and open slopes of deeper snow to our left, following the most inviting terrain. We soon got to where the summer trail normally is and from here we stayed atop the ridge and climbed it up to the east. The maps sometimes showed the summer trail stay more to the right, but we were able to easily stay atop the ridge. Just before the summit there was a brief but pretty steep slope we had to cross. We got out our ice axes and I faced in and side-stepped across to break the trail. We reached the summit a little before 1pm.

On the descent we followed the ridge back to where the summer trail switchbacks away from the ridge, and headed straight down the mountainside down past all switchbacks of the summer trail, then followed the last bit of the summer trail to the summer trailhead on Road 9070. We then did the long 5 or so mile trek out Cold Creek on Road 9070 back to Hyak to complete the loop, returning at 4:20pm.

GPS track: https://www.gaiagps.com/public/FyBb5derFplYKfcNVKA9rPh6

Our old guidebook (Cross-County Ski Tours: Washington's South Cascades and Olympics by Kirkendall and Spring) describes this trip as an option to the Mount Catherine Loop, but because the maps in that book are so difficult to read, we had never before figured out how to get to Nordic Pass.  Thanks to better maps and a GPS we finally sorted out a viable route.  We used Nordic backcountry skis for the trip.

We started from the Hyak Sno-Park at about 9:30.  The Sno-Park was busy, but had plenty of parking space left.  We skied up the groomed trail for about 1.25 mi, then took the short, ungroomed, signed cutoff before Mill Creek to get up to Forest Road 9070, which is part of the the groomed Snoqualmie Pass Nordic Center trail system.  Heading left (southwest), Road 9070 is part of the common corridor on which backcountry travelers are allowed without a Nordic Center pass.  (If you snowshoe this route, remember good groomed ski trail etiquette: snowshoe along the outer edge of the trail in single file without trampling the set tracks, and do not ever boot hike on the groomed trail.)  The conditions on the groomed trails were spring-like, with increasingly mushy snow as the warm, sunny day progressed, but the snow pack is deep so skiing is still good.  After about a mile on FS 9070, we turned uphill on Hidden Valley Trail, which is a steep slog in heavy backcountry skis.  About 1.8 miles from the turn, we left the groomed trails, just before the Mill Creek crossing, and headed up the upper Mill Creek drainage for the ca. 2 mile route over Nordic Pass.  There is no marked trail, and we initially second-guessed our route choice as we fought our way through dense second growth forest on slopes that are cut by many small drainages south of Mill Creek.  Our plan was to head west to Frog Lake and then intersect Nordic Pass Trail. However, we found that Mill Creek was too deeply entrenched to cross, and so we stayed south of the creek all the way up to the head of the valley.  Once we settled into our route, the forest opened up into a beautiful, open, old-growth glade.  The grade was moderate and the deep springtime snow pack was consolidated, so trail breaking was easy, and skiing was pure joy.  Shortly before Nordic Pass, after finally crossing the creek, we found two blue diamonds and then lost them.  To our surprise, we did not see any other ski or snowshoe tracks.  After lunch at Nordic Pass we headed pretty much straight west down some very steep slopes toward Windy Pass.  Our route required a lot of descending traverses, kick turns, some side-slipping and side stepping.  It was a little too steep and tree-covered for my beginner level telemark skills.  We ended up in Olallie Meadow, about 0.5 mi north of the Mount Catherine summer trailhead at Windy Pass.  The open, gentle slopes at Olallie Meadow were perfect for practicing a few tele turns.  Once back on the groomed route at Windy Pass, we made the 6 mile descent to complete the route.  By afternoon the trails were mushy, and the descent was slow.  We were back at the car by about 3:15, logging 11.5 miles (plus a mile lap around Olallie Meadow).

This is a great trip with some route-finding challenges in the middle section across Nordic Pass.  Next time we might try crossing Mill Creek on the groomed trail before heading west on the off-trail route.  The beauty of the area is that if you have navigation skills and the snow is deep, you can choose a different adventure each time you go!

I have to admit that this trail was not my first choice for a snowventure; but after failing to find parking at Alpental and near Gold Creek sno-park, this turned into a fantastic Plan C. I found this trail on Gaia when I parked in the Silver Fir overflow parking lot at 9:30am, and I walked over to the Silver Fir chair lift and Hyak-to-Central Connector ski trail to connect with the Nordic Pass Trail. There was a boot path as well as blue diamond blazers marking the trail through tall, snow covered conifers for several miles, allowing me to keep my eyes on the scenery instead of on my phone/topo maps. The grade is relatively easy and the powder was as clean and corny as it gets. Like the other trip reports mention, there are no substantial views on this trek, but the quiet landscape and the trees amongst the clouds and haze were surreal. I only came across a handful of shoe-ers along the path between Silver Fir and Hyak Lake, and I didn't see/hear a person between the last XC ski trail crossing and Nordic Pass.

At the pass, I coincidentally met a couple of climbers about to ascend Mount Catherine and followed them up the west slope for a solid hour. Caltopo/Gaia topo maps show moderately sloped terrain up to a ridge that seems easy to traverse, but the avalanche forecast called for considerable avy conditions and we found it pretty quickly. With the deep new snow and the steep micro-terrain features, the top layer was borderline unstable/faulty and we called it a little above 4200' (for scale, Nordic Pass is at 4000' and it took an hour to climb 200' vertical feet. There is a lot of snow up there). It was the safer judgement call and I'm glad I was with people more experienced than me to make that call. The clouds parted on the way back down and we saw a soaring bald eagle and a nice view of the valley, so that's pretty neat. I said my good-byes back at the pass and made a bee line for Rockdale Lake and the Grand Junction Warming Hut before walking back down to Hyak Lake and Silver Fir lift.

I was surprised by how much I loved this experience. To me, the best part about snowshoeing is sauntering through deep snow and thick trees to get to interesting spots in the backcountry. While this area isn't technically remote, you can definitely find some areas not frequently traveled. The relatively flat terrain near XC ski trails here allows you to experience some solitude without being too far from a bailout point and without navigating avy terrain.