Parked at Snoqualmie Pass west lot. Walked under I-90. Put snowshoes on. There were many boot tracks close to the road. A bit confusing first. Then, more or less one track, even though not quite matching anything I have on my GPS map. Stayed on the east side of Commonwealth Creek. It passed this little waterfall.
Around the junction of PCT (~1.5 miles from the road), we went straight up. Saw a group of 3 somewhere in the trees, soon no one else. This part of the forest hill is steep. Couldn't tell when we crossed PCT (twice). No tracks. Instead of the normal trail of ~3 miles, we went up in ~0.5 miles (~2000'). We eventually broke out of the trees at this "flatter" part, where we could see our destination. Fairly good view here already.
We took a long break here. Refueled. T took out his drone, clipped his phone on it, flew it over to the top. Here, we changed to crampons, donned helmit, ice-axe in hand, for the final climb. I also ditched my pack, hiking poles, snowshoes.
Steep, so took awhile. We were very lucky with the weather. Not windy, nor cold. The snow is packed down, solid but not icy. Yes, you need crampons and ice axe. But It didn't feel dangerous. T already had his drone out when I arrived. We took another good break soaking in the view. It was very calm. A rare treat in winter. The left photo is view to the west (you can see this as you climing up). These two panorama photos are to the north, and south.
On our way back, we traversed a bit to the north side, and went down (probably the same as summer trail) on a more gentle (softer) slope. Easy to walk down here. Then we crossed over trees to get back to our gears. Had another long break here, where I was able to finish my lunch. This hike is the only scramble this winter that I had the leisure to eat lunch. Saw a pair of skiers here.
I didn't bother with my snowshes hiking out. Post-holing sometimes. Back at lower elevation, when you see other people, the track was packed more solid. Easy walking out in micro-spikes. Got back to the car at 2:30pm. Parking lot was full.
I was dropped off downtown. Went to the library, but it was blocked by police, or rather a few blocks where the library is were blocked. I asked a cop car "what's going on". He said "something is going on". What an answer! Searched online: a bomb threat.
