February 12, 2005, Mt Catherine

This was a sunny nordic tour up from Hyak on the blue-diamond Nordic Pass trail along Hyak Creek between Hyak lifts  and Summit Central, up though the old growth that the ski areas are coveting, to Nordic Pass, down steeply to Windy Pass and out the Common Corridor groomed trail to Iron Horse and back to Hyak.

Snow was granular soft for inch to 3 inch depth on a very well consolidated base in most places with a very light breakable crust in some areas, and very hard in some shaded forest areas. It felt like late spring all of a sudden, with lots of moss and needles down. Beautiful conditions in the rolling clearcut at the top! So, with some luck, that's what's under some fresh stuff by now.