Mount Catherine, Windy Pass - Mount Catherine Snowshoe — Friday, Nov. 25, 2005

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

This road ski starts at the Hyak aka PacWest aka Summit East parking lot. We climbed up through the shallow, weed ""enhanced"" snow to the road and proceeded left above Lake Keechelus. The road has, at best, a few inches of snow and is enhanced in this area by wet spots which cause snow to cling to the bottom of skis. Oh, well, more snow than last year and it was a pretty pleasant day. Meandered up the road and the snow gets deeper. Oh, yes, neglected to mention that obviously four-wheel vehicles have been recently ""plowing"" up the road so that there are wheel ruts all the way to the beginning of the long switchbacks below Windy Pass (Pacific Crest Trail crossing). Finally, at the switchback the ruts stopped and the snowshoe tracks thinned out. Near the end of that first switchback we overtook the snowshoers and apparently they turned back at that point. Other skiers had already broken trail and we followed their tracks. While there probably is a foot to a foot and a half, the tracks were only about 3 inches deep. We turned around after achieving our view of Granite Mt and neighboring peaks. Stopped for lunch out of the breeze and quickly headed on down. Wax skis (mine) were considerably faster than my friend's patterned bases. She poled down and I had to brake. The uneven snow, ruts and snowshoe tracks made for interesting terrain. All in all - good day. Mostly cloudy with some brief but pleasant sunbreaks. REI and other shops do need to post a courtesy chart politely informing snowshoers that they need to break their own trail and not use cross country ski tracks.