Nordic Pass - Hyak, Windy Pass - Mount Catherine Snowshoe — Friday, Mar. 3, 2006

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Kudos to HikerJim and his pal Gary for all the work on the Nordic Pass trail! I headed up there today to check it out on a late decision trip. Parked at the Gold Creek SnoPark and headed up to the trailhead after a wrong turn. Climbed up the snowwall, down into the creek, and back up to see the Nordic Pass trail sign. Only two old XC tracks, partly filled in with recent snow. Put on my snowshoes and headed up along the diamonds. A little ways in I hit a snowshoe route marked with ""Atlas Snowshoes"" route markers. I followed this from here on up to the powerlines, across the groomed road, and then up to Hyak Lake. At the top there was a decent sized crowd hanging around the ski patrol cabin. Took some photos, had a snack, watched the skiers, then headed up between the groomed routes towards the large powerlines. I turned right and followed the lines east to rejoin the Nordic Pass trail. Found another sign and continued along the diamonds. Shortly I had to cross another groomed run and then entered the dense trees. Skirted frog lake and slowly climbed up towards the pass. Near the pass there is a weird looking radio transmitter cabin. Passed this and at the sign for Windy pass I headed for the ridgeline. Followed the ridgeline up towards Catherine. Slow going as my snowshoes were starting to ball up with snow. Had to stop often to clean them. Some steep sections here but nothing exposed as long as you stay away from the north sides of the ridge. Below the summit there is a nice clearing with excellent views of Silver, Tinkham, and much of the surrounding peaks. The true summit was very snowloaded and exposed so I called this good. Going back down was equally slow because of the snowcoated snowshoes and I had many unplanned glissades. Many more XC tracks about on the descent back to the car. By now my snowshoe track was a XC skiers highway and I had to break a new fresh trail. Getting late and as I passed the ski patrol hut he asked if anyone else was out there as they were doing a sweep for the night. Many many more snowshoe tracks down near Hyak Lake and the trail was packed down well now. Futher down there were also more ski tracks leading from the trailhead. Trip photos at http://www.pbase.com/billcat/catherine/