Saturday, I went and did my first winter 46er.  I decided on Cascade and Porter because of the distance (shortest for all the peaks) and because I knew the trail somewhat well.  I got at the trailhead about 9, got my boots, jacket, etc on and started to walk from the second parking area to the trailhead, getting about 3/4 of the way there, to realize I didn't have my gloves.  D'oh!  I get my gloves and go back.  Now this trail in the summer is a good mix of steep and flat with a lot of rocks to navigate over, and one really good scramble before you get to the bald peak.  Well, the overall steep vs flat obviously didn't change.  The rocks though largely disappeared making it a relatively smooth trail up the mountain.  What I have been promised of the trails being "easier" was true.  There were a few places where there were larger boulders in the trail that were iced over, but not bad to get up.  The one big scramble that's a pain in the summer was all snowed over and with proper traction dead simple to get up.

When I got to junction with Porter, I checked time.  I was way late for what I was hoping to do, not knowing how long it would take me to get down.... It was about 1230.  Porter is another 0.7 away and Cascade was 0.2 away.  I decided to tackle Cascade as that's the one that has a view anyways, not Porter.  I head out towards Cascade, and this high meadow/marsh area was a breeze to get through, unlike in summer where you're balancing on logs or trying to avoid the mud.  Then I reached the tree line where I could see the bald peak.  Some people were changing to microspikes, others were in snowshoes.  Everyone was bundled up.  I get my puffer jacket out, pull up my balaclava (finding out that it was on backwards and I just used it to cover the back of my neck and chin) considered my wind break layer but said nah, and started up in my snow shoes.  About 20 min later after traversing a lot of bare rock, a ladder, and trying to scramble up a few cracks in the stone while wearing huge shoes that had crampons on the bottom of them.. I finally summited Cascade.  I took a couple pictures as I battled standing up in the winds that were blowing strong and constant from Placid (predicted 20 mph winds, I'm guessing closer to 30).  I then discovered the fun of going down some of these more vertical surfaces with snow shoes.  Butt slides were used and the big feet stopped me when I wanted.  I got back below tree line and again thought should I go to Porter or go down. 

Looking back, I probably could have done Porter as it's a relatively easy hike from that point, all the elevation has really been gained, it's only about 300 feet of elevation loss/gain between the 2 peaks over that 0.7 miles.  I decided to be cautious since i was past the halfway point of daylight and head down.  It took me about 4 hours to summit due to being out of shape.  I feared going down would be a different thing and may take just as long bringing me to 5ish when sunset is about 5:45, and in the mountains on the north side, that's realistically like 5.  Thankfully, my way down was back towards a normal rate for me and I did the 2.4 miles out in about 1.5 hours with tweaking my knee and hip only a little bit.  Going down was not as difficult as I expected, and I didn't need to butt slide down.

So, now I have to go back to the gym and get my stamina back, and then go back up once more.... Maybe this year only because this trail should be closed sometime this year being replaced with a longer, but much easier trail (hopefully)