Dec 24, 2006, - Snoq. Pass - Mt. Catherine attempt

holiday stress got you down??  go skiing!!!!

started out from the hyak parking lot around 9:30 this morning...made our way along the cat track and trails until before breaking trail mill creek...followed previous tracks off and on into the old growth and up to the opening at 3,950'...no tracks beyond this point as we traversed across below the steeps, dropping down once (about 100') to avoid a questionable looking cliff...we continued for what seemed much more than the noted 900' before finding manageable slopes for heading up...using a compass, it seemed that we weren't quite on the right path and never really on the northwest shoulder as we could see much terrain still above us...we stopped (1-1:30) at perhaps 4,500' or higher before heading down...good thing too w/ the afternoon weather moving in...snow was light and deep as we gliding between the trees, back to the old growth (ski it, don't log it!!) and out into "dr. suess land" before the nordic tracks back to the top of hyak...the snow was perfect...down to the car by 3:30 as they were shutting down due to snow and wind...only fall of the day was hard one on the groomer heading down!!!  haha

happy holidaze  ;D

mill creek


big trees


joe heading down