(note, this is a 7 mile RT snowshoe to Nordic Pass, with about 1580 of vertical gain... the webpage incorrectly gives the distance to Hyak Lake with a description of the longer hike to Nordic Pass).
We hiked in the morning before a big snowstorm, so assume some of our info is out of date already. We started at 9am; finished at 3. Normally we do this in 5 hours but today did some exploring which added time. The Nordic Pass trail (following blue diamonds) was perfect today. Somebody preceeded us and so we never broke trail. We only saw 1 person the entire day (mid week). Our only slight detour was about 2.5 miles in there is a creek crossing that wasn't safe and so the current boot trail takes your 30 yards off trail to a good crossing.
For new people to this trail...its marked by blue diamonds about 10 feet up on trees, you start down by Hyak (see other reports on how to find the trail at the bottom) and then ascend for 1 mile to Hyak Lake. If there is sufficient snow at Hyak you cross ....turn left or roughly west to re-find the blue diamond trail. Take this then up to a ski trail road and cross that. This section has fewer blue diamonds so you likely want to rely on a map to refind the trail. It then follows a steep ridge and you'll do a bit of snowshoeing on an angle (ugh) but that lasts only 200 yards and then you end up in a lovely forest. You end up roughly going south for the last mile. I have not seen avalanche slopes nor evidence of avalanche, which makes this a good snowshoe. I would not hike this with only boots or spikes; its often untracked and thus hard to do. At the top we went 100 yards further to look at the Snotel gauge.
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