3 miles of hiking • 1250' elevation gain •
I joined my dad on his day off; we took our snowshoes and got to Timberline Lodge without a pre-determined hike plan. We thought to get to Big Zigzag Canyon viewpoint and see if we wanted to continue from there. Located PCT sign quickly but with about 3 feet of snow on the ground we couldn't follow the trail. Instead of going in the vicinity of PCT slightly downhill in the forest (and over tree wells) we hiked slightly uphill and stayed in the open. I only expected Little Zigzag to a minor obstacle, but what came to a surprise is that we had to cross 2 steep-sided canyons even before we got to Lil Zigzag - I didn't even notice those canyons back in summer but not they presented an obstacle. West side of Sand Canyon even had cornices about 1.5 feet thick and several feet wide. We chose not to cross Little Zigzag because of imposing cornices on its west side (between 5-8 feet thick?), also it would be next to impossible to descend and ascend on steep, hard-packed snow without any climbing equipment. We decided to hike above Little Zigzag but when we got to the head of the canyon the wind increased so much we had to turn back.
Despite being windy, it was a nice, sunny, and warm day on the mountain (it felt 45-50F, much warmer than down below). The snow made familiar terrain quite different and interesting.
