Long day snowshoeing in an attempt to get up to Howson Peak on Saturday.
Made it to the TH at around 8:30 AM. Chains were required at the pass and Salmon La Sac road was covered in thin layer of snow.
Parked the car at the pullout area about .1 mi before French Cabin Sno-Park. Not sure if sno-park permit is required but we did have a permit.
Broke the trail from the start and put on snowshoes after the ramp as we started postholing. Snow was unconsolidated and deep as expected, so we put consistent effort of trailbreaking. What we didn't expect was the amount of blowdowns on the steep slope that we had to go over that made trailbreaking and routefinding a lot more difficult.
Took us around 6 hours to go up to Pt 5159 and we pretty much ran out of daylight to go up to Howson although it's only another 0.7 mi one way and 500 extra ft to go up to Howson, ugh...
The view from this high point was stunning with a panoramic view of Cle Elum Lake and nearby Teanaway peaks and valley. It was a little cloudy so we couldn't see Rainier that day.
After a short break, we reversed our route and it only took us 2.5 hours to reach the trailhead with a leisurely pace. Those blowdown problems magically disappeared with the trail we broke earlier and the snow conditions made it fairly easy for descending.
Overall, a nice day out in the mountain to conclude 2025.
Stats: 4.3 mi RT, around 2,800ft gain total, 8:43 total time.
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