[mbravenboer]

Ever since the trip report for 'Knowgrass' on NWHikers this year, Snowgrass has been on my list of must-do hikes. Normally you probably do not want to venture in this area in winter, but due to snow only starting at ~4000ft and favorable avalanche conditions I decided that I would see how far I could get in a day. Clearly, a dayhike to Snowgrass is virtually impossible on a short winter day though. Me and my dog started at 7am at the trailhead. The road to the trailhead is a bit icy, but easily drivable with a 4WD and transaction tires. The first stretch of the hike to the Wildhorse split was pretty easy (an hour). In the morning, the soil was not entirely frozen yet. There is only a very minor amount of snow there and this is easily doable on your hiking buts. On the way back, this stretch was considerably more icy. I put on my snowshoes at about 4000ft. There was enough snow then to continuously walk in solid snow and I start postholing quite a bit with my shoes. Until roughly 5000ft (the bootpath to Deadhorse Pass), there was only a little bit of powder snow on top of the old snow. After this point, there was much more fresh snow, probably 5-10 inch. This actually made snowshoeing difficult, because the powder provides no traction at all, and you have to kick pretty solid steps to hit the harder layer underneath the powder snow. There were pretty nice views of the ridge at the other side of the valley (and very clear wind slab). I got to the last creek before the creek from Lake Grace at about noon. I started realizing then that although I could make it to the Lake Grace creek, I would not be able to go very high towards Snowgrass for a good view. At that point I decided to simply go straight up in the amazingly beautiful valley of the current creek, leading towards Big Chiwaukum. This area is very open, I imagine these might be nice meadows in summer. I climbed to about 6500ft and the effort was rewarded with stunning views of Mt Hinman, The Olympics, and even a little bit of Baker. The Wildhorse trail was very easy to follow. No bushwhacking was needed, despite the low snow depth. It might have been improved recently? This winter it might be hard to do this hike once there is more snow, but otherwise I would highly recommend this hike! The rating and commentary in the Mountaineers Central Cascades book really does not do this area justice. Once I climbed away from the normal trail, very nice views opened up on the surrounding peaks:

Panorama from 6500ft

Panorama from 6500ft

I was surprised to even see the Olympics from this point (also notice the wind slab) :

View on Olympics

Some others pics (a few more in the set on Flickr)

Meadows below Big Chiwaukum on Wildhorse Creek Trail

Last part of the climb up the slopes of Big Chiwaukum

View from Wildhorse Trail

View from Wildhorse Trail

Nice roller

Big Chiwaukum

[RichP]

[HitTheTrail]

Way to go. I have always wondered why people fight maddening crowds up in the Enchantments when you can almost always find peace and solitude in this beautiful area. I will probably go back again next summer.