If you're not chasing views and want an adventure this is a great choice. There was enough bare shoulder to park my Outback on Snoqualmie Drive at the switch back in the road. The snow was firm at the embankment, so I strapped my snowshoes to my pack, put on my spikes, and started chasing blue diamonds. There's a small snow bridge to cross the creek.
Travel was easy all the way to Hyas Lake, but once the trail turned into the forest again, it was time to put the snowshoes on. From here to the upper powerline swath diamonds continued to be easy to follow. Once there though I made the one wrong choice of the day. Across the swath and groomed trail, I could see a diamond in the far tree while I also saw a flag further uphill by the pylon. I chose to go with the diamond, but after seeing a couple more I lost track of them. I followed a few groomed trails, then picked up an old snowshoe track. This went okay for a while but started to trend towards Frog Lake rather than higher up on the ridge, so when I saw an old ski track coming down from the ridge, I followed this until I came out at a clearing. I decided my best bet was to go straight up the ridge and voila, more diamonds! I easily followed them the rest of the way to Nordic Pass. Though I scouted around a few humps, views were hard to come by.
The return trip went fine with me following the diamonds all the way, coming out at the ribbon near the pylon that also had a blue diamond attached. Though a lot of the travel is at an easy grade there's a few steep spots, and the up and down and in and out around tree wells add a good workout. There were many spots that needed a few quick steps across a knife edge between tree wells, but nothing that was dangerous as the snow cover isn't that deep. The weather was perfect all day, neither hot nor cold with a sun break or two. I tracked 8.03 miles with 1574 of gain. Thank you to the good folks who put all the diamonds up! #MemberAppreciation.
