Feb 25, 2006, Mt. Catherine attempt

Took the lift up Hyak, and then headed over to the base of Mt. Catherine (following Volken's route.)  There was already a trail broken, so we followed that up through the clearcut, keeping nordic pass to our right, and then up into the old growth.  Snow was awesome light powder.  Climbing went fairly quickly, but as we got further up into the trees, and the terrain got steeper (maybe 400 vf from the summit?) we decided it was prudent to turn back and stick to the well treed terrain (heeding Moore's advice not to trust this snowpack.)  We talked to another group that got closer to the summit, and they said that it was all rocks and cornices, so they turned back as well.  The run down was fantastic and light, with no wind effects inside the trees.  We ended up taking another lap from the bottom of the clearcut to a couple hundred vf above, which was fantastic again.

On the way down, we took hidden valley instead of gaining the ridge back to hyak.  I don't think I'll do that again, as the trail gets pretty flat, and actually goes uphill, which was a workout on my randonee setup.