19 Jan 2011
After days and days of warm rain C.J. and I were not sure how much snow there would be at Snoqualmie Pass. The temperature dropped below freezing on Tuesday and the Pass Report claimed 3 new inches. We parked at the not-yet-open Hyak Ski Area (Summit East, now) and found a couple of inches of snow atop frozen mashed potatoes.
The trail along the Cold Creek USFS road had not been groomed but there were a few ski tracks showing that three or four folks were out ahead of us. At about 5 km we passed the clearing which used to hold a yurt but now only had a porta-potti.
Beyond the trail began to climb, and switchbacked twice before we got high enough to start getting views of the nearby mountains, Tinkham and Silver. Pretty soon we found a good scenic lunch spot and settled down for some serious soaking up of the sunshine. After lunch we pushed up the trail to (non-)Windy Pass (about 8 km from the parking lot) and a view across to (probably) Kendall Peak through the low clouds.
The slide down took considerably less energy than the uphill slog. It would have been more enjoyable if the trail-grooming snowcat had not passed us just above the second switchback and turned the snow surface into ground-up ice crystals.
There were a couple of places on the way down where the trail had been slightly improved by the groomer, but you still had to be careful when crossing some of the washouts.
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