Sherman Peak Loop

February 15, 2025 | Snowshoe | Approached from Kettle Falls

View Route Details: AllTrails Map of Our Route

View WTA Trip Reports: WTA Trip Reports for Sherman Peak

Parking Fees: $50 for Snow Park Full Season Pass (we had purchased ours at Mount Spokane) | Did not see a kiosk at Sherman Pass to purchase one at the parking lot

Trail Conditions: Loose, powdery snow over hard crusted over snow.

Direction Taken: Clockwise

Reason?

Steeper slopes on the east side of the loop. Hence greater avalanche danger. We wanted to see if we can cross those sections at the beginning of our hike and have the option of turning around and backing out of crossing them, if necessary. Versus snowshoeing counterclockwise would place the avalanche prone slopes at the end of the looped hike and not really having the option to turn back around.

Hard parts?

1. Starting out from the parking lot following the summer trail I post holed waist deep into a downed tree well while crossing “the gorge.” (Mindset influenced by the AppleTV movie, Gorge.) My first time post holing so panicked for half a minute, returned to calmness, then asked the husband for how-to’s on the best, safest way of getting out. Ended up being a good learning experience. (This section of trail can be easily avoided by going out to the highway, crossing, then connecting up with the loop. On our return we did not return via “the gorge” route.)
2. Roughly around the halfway point there is a very steep slope and the road sharply bends with a protruding rock cliff. That part was sketchy to snowshoe around. Ice axes weren’t super useful for me cause the snow was so fluffy and deep that you had to push down real deep to have any purchase. I kept just hitting rocks. (Lack of skill once again bubbling to the surface for me here, cause husband didn’t have same issue, but did find it challenging, as well.)
3. On the south side of the loop and then a bit past the saddle on the west side the sloped open hills have a hard, ice crust covered with a couple inches of loose, powdery snow. The whole hike we’ve already been side hilling. So, I got sketched out on these sections with my snowshoes slipping on the loose snow and not being able to grip into the iced slopes. I should’ve gotten my ice axe back out, cause here it would have worked well with the icy slope. Instead, I used just my poles and wobbled unsteadily through these sections. 
4. A skier skied the whole loop some time ago. In part nice cause it reduced route finding time. But for the most part it made for tough snowshoeing conditions cause their tracks got frozen over. Add side hilling. Our left feet got punished the whole way around as our snowshoe couldn’t properly step on the snow. Ankle twisting conditions.

As for everything else? Gorgeous views! Great snowshoe day. Had some blue skies. A bit of sun. Little to no wind. When not sidehilling the fluffy snow was fantastic. Lots of rabbit tracks. (Or perhaps the same rabbit everywhere!) Then a funky one that looked like bicycle tire treads that we couldn’t quite figure out. Squirrel? Overall a great day despite me having a couple of stressful moments.

Didn’t meet a single human while on the trail. There was a busload of people from Whitworth University that arrived just a bit before us and we were hoping we’d get to benefit from them breaking trail. But nope. They went counterclockwise and instead of looping they just went up to the top of Sherman Peak. We never saw them on the trail. Our thoughts are that this trail is waaaaay easier when not snow covered. Would love to come back when the larches are turning colors.