It can be tough to gauge conditions this time of year, and during our outing, we ran into some folks who (to me) seemed underprepared. We’ve all been in over our heads at some point, and I’d like to shorten the learning curve for those hikers who come here to inform themselves.
On Saturday, I hiked with my dog and a friend. Our roundtrip hiking time was about 6.5 hours, and we reached the top a little before the 4-hr mark. Snow was evident on the road around 2000’ elevation, and we had to park two miles shy of the upper trailhead due to snow. It was below freezing throughout the day and much colder with the wind chill along the ridge. We made use of all our gear: mittens for the dog, shells and insulating layers for the humans, plus about 2 liters of water apiece (and some cold pizza for lunch). And importantly, snowshoes.
We did not start out in snowshoes, but decided to put them on near Camp Windy. They were immediately helpful, though the boot path somewhat complicated things. Hikers wearing boots had punched through older snowshoe prints, probably sinking about a foot each time. I found myself pronating into these holes because I didn’t have enough snow underfoot for compaction/floatation. Still, I think the snowshoes were a net benefit early on, and they became a huge help later when we weren’t stepping in/around holes. A couple times, hikers without snowshoes said something like Should’ve brought those today! and I agree. Certainly, some folks reached the summit without snowshoes. But just because you can posthole your way to the top doesn’t mean you should.
If you’re thinking of doing this wintery hike, consider a) the snow driving and your vehicle’s capacity for it b) layers and c) a backup plan if the conditions are worse than you expected. When we started hiking today, we saw a Subaru sedan stuck on the side of the road near the upper trailhead. The driver said they were doing okay, and they were waiting on someone they’d managed to call. Later, we encountered some hikers wearing cotton hoodies and carrying less gear than I’d recommend for any snowy hike. I say all this not to gatekeep, but because these conditions are fickle and you need to be prepared. In our case, we didn’t plan on adding 4 miles of FS road hiking to our day, but we brought enough gear and afforded ourselves enough time to make it work.
Mt Walker right off 101 and a great training option for the winter months. Hurricane Ridge is great for snowshoeing because conditions are monitored and reported out by ONP. And other places along the Hood Canal (like the Lena Lake area) have quicker FS road drive times, so you might not be worried as much about the sunk cost of turning around. We had a beautiful day at Mt Townsend, and I’d encourage others to check it out, but I also will not be going back here if any amount of additional snow accumulates on the road.
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