[JimK]

The Nordic Pass Trail is an excellent snowshoe/ski route starting from Hyak (Summit East) just east of Snoqualmie Pass. Gary was one of the originators of the route as a way to access the backcountry near Snoqualmie Pass. He has skied it most of the past 30 years. Back in 2006 he put together a work party to replace missing blue diamonds that mark the entire route. That was my first time on the trail. Recently a thread here at NWHikers bemoaned the missing diamonds and difficulty in following the route. One of the folks in that thread had contacted Gary about volunteering for a work party on the trail. Hence the impetus for this trip and report. We met at 8:20 am and were soon walking the road out of Hyak up to the switchback where the trail begins. The Nordic Pass sign is no longer there. We climbed the snowbank, crossed the creek on a thick snow bridge and headed out. Diamonds were mostly still there down low but we added a number more. You should always be able to see the next one or two ahead. All the hammering took time. It was noon by the time we reached the meadow and had lunch. It was after 3:00 pm when we reached the pass. The first part from the pass down lacked a lot of diamonds. Not any more. We hiked out the last half hour in the dark. For the day we put up about 160 blue diamonds. The route can now be followed. You do have to stop and look hard in places for the next diamond but the navigation is much easier than before the work. Thanks to Gary, John, Louise, Bill, and another John for all their hard work. I posted a more detailed trip report with an email address for Gary if you would like a map or GPS track. I also have an interactive GMAP4 map with GPS track linked from the report. There are 40 annotated photos of the trip as well. The report can be found at: Nordic Pass Report & Photos Here are a few of my photos:

John Nails Up Diamond

Crossing Corridor

Lunch Time

Alongside Hyak Lake

Into Open Forest

Power Line Corridor

Group At Nordic Pass

Snow Finger

Gary Adds A Diamond

Off Snow At 6:53 pm

[RichP]

Thanks for improving this trail for those of us who enjoy it.

[Backpacker Joe]

Check it out. Jim's giving the finger. LOL nice work there.

[JimK]

That snow finger is one of the more amazing things I have seen from the trail. It looks like it must have been photoshopped but it is right out of the camera.

[Backpacker Joe]

More like giving the thumb! Really cool.

[daugman]

Thanks very much; I hope weather and schedule allows me to go up Sunday (again). Though i'd love to be the 2nd person up after the dumping of snow. Snotel gauge adjacent to Nordic Pass reported 93 inches when we went 10 days ago; this am was about 140 inches; a dramatic increase.

[daugman]

Jim or others doing this work; will you cross post to some other sites? (sort of a tradeoff of you want this trail used to keep it "alive" whilst I guess at times not wanting a Franklin falls feel

[JimK]

I did post a report at WTA also. There have been "bursts" of reports in the past then interest slows down. There are 70 trip reports on this site that include Nordic Pass. Many are trips up Mt. Catherine. The lack of blue diamonds could also account for the lack of recent years reports. The section from the Powerline Corridor across the two groomed xc ski tracks had nearly no diamonds left. If this trail takes a few snowshoers off the groomed ski tracks I'm okay with that.

[Magellan]

Nice work fellas. Used those diamonds once for a winter trip up Catherine.

[daugman]

I have to ask about summer; is there a underlying trail of any form? I kind of want to go up Catherine but not hassle w the crummy road up to windy pass

[Randito]

[daugman]

Partial update; March 19 (sunny Sunday). We took this trail about 2/3 of the way up. I've been 3x this winter and this time I think I followed the correct blue diamond trail. (and re the 2/3, we got tired and since I've seen the pass, we didn't feel compelled to go all the way). The portion below Hyak lake was well tracked and icy. Above Hyak lake we hit a crust covered new 6 inches or so. Most of the time we followed a person up that route the same day (I am guessing) Regarding the new blue diamonds on the trail; thank you all who did the update. a) At least for the first 2/3 it was pretty obvious where the trail was (and I know from past trips the upper 1/3 was already mostly decently marked) b) For first timers, a lot of the diamonds will be on a pretty obvious line...BUT a handful seem to be off to either the left or the right. That is, I found about 3 or 4 times that when I could not find the next diamond...if I aimed right or left, I then could find it. At some points the trail zigs a bit, also a couple of switchbacks. c) I'd encourage all to upload the GPX to their devices....not out of fear of getting lost but rather saves you some time trying to work too hard to refind the trail in the handful of zigs.

[MikeW]

Thought I'd revive this thread to say what a wonderful job the group did last year who re-marked the trail. My friend and I skied this trail this past weekend(Sunday) and were amazed at how well it was all marked. I've tried to complete this loop(up Nordic Pass Trail, and back down via the common corridor trail from Windy Pass) for many years and would always get lost. Well, the fourth time was the charm. This is a wonderful trail that was amazingly quiet for being so close to the downhill area--we didn't see another skier or snowshoer on the trail the entire day we were out on Sunday. Snow conditions weren't the best, but putting some skins on my madshus epoch skis helped with that. Thanks, again, for the great work in re-marking the trail! I'm looking forward to skiing this trail again next year!

[JimK]

Glad that our work was helpful. There were many missing diamonds last year. It is a fun trip with very low avalanche danger.

[whitebark]

Now if someone would fell some logs across the creek right at the start of the trail ( so that a snow bridge would build up ) that would be really great!