A Mountaineers party of three, we started from Hyak Sno-Park and skied south on the Palouse to Cascades trail. At about one mile, we went through an open gate and passed a path on the right marked with yellow disks and no fresh tracks. A couple of minutes later we saw a path on the left marked with blue diamonds, with fresh ski tracks. A section of culvert in the bare drainage ditch is probably part of a snow bridge when the snow base is deep enough.
We took off our skis to start up this trail, then skied, herring-boned and side-stepped about 1/8 mile to Cold Creek Trail, a/k/a Trail 17, a/k/a Mount Catherine Loop. This section of trail was not recently groomed but was in good condition, topped with fresh snow. A groomer had come down the Hidden Valley Trail, and gone up the Cold Creek Trail, so we continued on the freshly groomed surface. We had lunch in the toasty Jim Brooks warming hut, and as we were getting back on the trail, we met the groomer coming back downhill.
We skied uphill around two switchback turns, up to the 6.5 km sign for the Mount Catherine Loop, at an elevation of 3,334'. We turned around there, and enjoyed some downhill runs on fresh, mostly untracked grooming. Total r/t distance from Hyak Sno-park was 9 miles, with 1,120' of elevation gain. We left the sno-park about 9:45 a.m. and got back about 2:45 p.m., with stops for lunch, breaks and photography. Base looks pretty good and I think this trail will be good for some late season skiing and snowshoeing.
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