Mount Townsend — Saturday, Jan. 9, 2021

We shot out to Townsend for a quick overnight snow trip.  About 1 mile before the trailhead we started to run into snow on the road. At the spur of FR27-190 we continued on to the main trailhead. The road was icy, and had deep potholes in the middle of the road but was passable with 4WD or AWD without issue.  Starting up the trail we found that the trail was icy but in great condition for about the first 1.5miles just below the final set of switchbacks to Camp Windy.  At that junction we found intermittent deep snowpack.  We found snowshoes necessary with large packs, and would be highly recommended even without packs. We spent a great night at Camp Windy and caught some great views of the stars and surrounding peaks!  On the morning of 1/10 we set off for the summit of Townsend.  About 1/3 mile past Camp Windy the trail disappeared and we stomped out a path to the top through roughly 2-3' of unconsolidated powder.  As we ascended we saw evidence of heavy wind loading on open snowfields.  Additionally I was able to propagate small shooting cracks coming off of trees/rocks on some of the slopes.  Because of this we set the trail through the trees to avoid potential avalanche danger. On the summit we were greeted by 360 views of the Olympics, Cascades, Baker, Rainier...! Winds were heavy on the top and we found thin snow cover, mostly ice. Overall we we had an awesome experience! Careful decision making and avalanche awareness training is highly recommended! NWAC is a great resource for this.