Considering this year's low snow pack, the route to Valhalla Lake was surprisingly good on Nordic backcountry skis this President's Day. From Highway 2, Smithbrook Road has a firm base of at least a couple feet of old snow covered with 3-4 inches of fresher snow. The road was firmly packed by snow machines, snowshoers, skiers, and boot hikers. At about 2 miles, some bare patches were exposed by meltwater, but they were easy to navigate around.
At about 3 miles, we left the road at the big switchback near the summer trailhead, and made our own tracks to head up the skier's route on the south side of Smith Brook. Getting across the creek was challenging, but we finally found an almost complete snowbridge that was firm enough to pick our way across. (Snowshoers seem to prefer staying on the north side of Smith Brook, along the summer trail, which avoids this creek crossing.) Snow conditions were variable, but a few inches of fresh powder on the older, firm freeze-thaw surface provided reasonably good purchase in most areas. Hard, icy berms were present around some tree wells, but because of the low snow pack, the tree wells were shallow. We climbed to the basin below Lichtenberg Mountain, then crossed the basin to the north and climbed the ridge up to the PCT, where we intersected some snowshoe tracks just above 4800 ft. The snow on this south-facing slope had a soft crust, but was still skiable.
Unfortunately, we hit our turn-around time before we got to the lake today. We needed to get back to Edmonds in time for an orchestra rehearsal, so we retraced our tracks back to the car. We took the descent through the trees a little slower than usual because the thin snow coverage did not forgive mistakes.
This route has potential avalanche risks in a few spots, so evaluate the conditions before heading out.
Stats: 9.9 mi, 1,770 ft elevation gain, 6 hours
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