Nordic Pass - Hyak — Saturday, Feb. 3, 2007

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

The forecast called for a 50% chance of rain today, but we won the coin flip and had a dry day of cross country skiing. Because of the high snow levels and possible refreezing over night, we thought it best to go skiing on a groomed trail today. Mark and I picked the common corridor up the Cold Creek Road to Windy Pass. The common corridor is groomed by the ski area, but backcountry skiers are allowed to ski this section of road without buying a trail pass. To get to the common corridor, we skied the Iron Horse Trail from the Hyak SnoPark lot. We skied the groomed route noting the numbers on the nearby power poles. When the number reached 1143 we skied past the next unnumbered pole which should be pole 1142 and then looked for the connector trail on the right side of the Iron Horse Trail. The connector trail is marked by blue diamonds and usually there are ski tracks or boot prints on the trail. The connector trail is short and steep so many skiers choose to walk it. The connector trail reaches the Cold Creek Road at the start of the common corridor. We turned left there and headed for Windy Pass. Both the Iron Horse Trail and the Cold Creek Road had nicely groomed surfaces and the skiing was quite pleasant. At Windy Pass the snow off the groomed road was heavy and thick, but not the frozen crud we had feared. So we headed up the Nordic Pass Trail to Nordic Pass. A map of the Nordic Pass Trail can be obtained by emailing nordicpasstrail@yahoo.com. Just before reaching Windy Pass, if you look off to the right you can see a couple of blue diamonds in the distance and if you look more carefully you can see a Nordic Pass trail sign above the diamonds. From the sign on, the blue diamonds lead straight up the hillside. We couldn't climb that steeply so we made our own switchbacks up through the widely spaced trees. The grade lessens and then the trail drops down a bit to a snow gauging site. From there it is a short distance up to Nordic Pass. When the snow is nice we enjoy the challenge of skiing down the Nordic Pass Trail back to Hyak, but not today. After eating lunch we retraced our route back to the car. The run down from Windy Pass was a blast. The road was fast, but the groomed surface gave us plenty of control. We had a great day of skiing on a day that didn't seem too promising.