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
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