The road has a few patches of snow on the switchbacks and then suddenly transforms to all snow less than a quarter mile from the trailhead. I turned back and packed a bit before then in a wide spot of the road. 

The trail start signage is buried in snow so first I passed it, realizing my mistake when I reached the snowy PCT. After backtracking I realized there was no sign and no footprints in the snow. I followed the wide corridor between the trees for a short distance before reaching bare trail for a couple switchbacks. There are a couple downed trees to navigate. Snow starts to creep back in and soon the trail is full snow. 

I was in trail runners/microspikes and poles which was fine for most of the way. The snow is consolidated and I didn't posthole much. The sloped snow over the trail require me kicking steps into the snow. When I reached the final traverse to the summit block I found very deep, sloped fairly firm snow. With boots and an axe perhaps but not in my trail runners. It also started to rain enough that I felt even better about my decision to bail. 

A Mountaineers party of three, we started from Hyak Sno-Park and skied south on the Palouse to Cascades trail. At about one mile, we went through an open gate and passed a path on the right marked with yellow disks and no fresh tracks. A couple of minutes later we saw a path on the left marked with blue diamonds, with fresh ski tracks.  A section of culvert in the bare drainage ditch is probably part of a snow bridge when the snow base is deep enough.  

We took off our skis to start up this trail, then skied, herring-boned and side-stepped about 1/8 mile to Cold Creek Trail, a/k/a Trail 17, a/k/a Mount Catherine Loop.  This section of trail was not recently groomed but was in good condition, topped with fresh snow.  A groomer had come down the Hidden Valley Trail, and gone up the Cold Creek Trail, so we continued on the freshly groomed surface.  We had lunch in the toasty Jim Brooks warming hut, and as we were getting back on the trail, we met the groomer coming back downhill. 

We skied uphill around two switchback turns, up to the 6.5 km sign for the Mount Catherine Loop, at an elevation of 3,334'.  We turned around there, and enjoyed some downhill runs on fresh, mostly untracked grooming. Total r/t distance from Hyak Sno-park was 9 miles, with 1,120' of elevation gain. We left the sno-park about 9:45 a.m. and got back about 2:45 p.m., with stops for lunch, breaks and photography.  Base looks pretty good and I think this trail will be good for some late season skiing and snowshoeing.

Road to the trailhead closed in Hyak, about 5 miles from the trailhead

Gorgeous fall day for a short hike!

Shortly after you pass the houses, the road becomes a little rough with potholes. Not too bad for the Outback, but take it slow if you’re in a sedan. We got there just before 10am and there was only one car parked at the trailhead and a couple others at pullouts up ahead.

You’ll see the trailhead going straight up to the right as you drive in. First .25 miles is loose rocks and a bit annoying but once you get through that, it alternates between dirt trail, some more rocky bits, and a bunch of switchbacks. You get some flatter bits scattered in between and a few viewpoints along the ridge but ultimately, just keeping pushing up to the summit since it’s only 1.5miles up.

Short and steep but the stunning 360 views are well worth it! We stopped and ate lunch and on the way down, we passed about 6-10 groups coming up so looks like we were just on the early side!

My first time here and I really enjoyed the hike and summit views. The trail is short, steep and sweet. The road is fun if you have a high clearance vehicle, if not go slow and use skill. I was the first car in the small 3 car "lot" off the side of the road at 10am. There's no signage at the trailhead and no privy.  No water on trail.  Check out my YouTube video for details. Please leave no trace.

https://youtu.be/8R98xSKhHlU?si=tkTC04IxLdeD5yGw