Harts Pass – October Snowmobiling

At Harts Pass

Oct 26, 2025

Eric and Talon

This has been one of the snowiest Octobers I can remember in Washington, and a storm Saturday night was forecast to dump a few feet of snow at higher elevations. Usually in the fall sometime in mid November I take my snowmobile out for the first ride of the season to make sure it is in working order before Winter Bulgers season starts. I want to give plenty of lead time to fix any issues before the start of winter when I need to to get to trailheads to climb Bulgers.

The route

I’d never riden earlier than November before, though, and it appeared a rare alignment of conditions would make that possible. I would want at least a foot of snow predicted on the road, and the Harts Pass area appeared to meet that criteria. NOHRSC maps are my go-to source for snow-depth predictions, and it was showing 20-30 inches at the pass. Harts Pass is the highest road in Washington, with the road continuing on to Slate Peak at 7450ft. This is one of the most reliable locations for a road that reaches snow early season.

Snow depth prediction

I’ve ridden this road many times to access Bulgers in winter, and it can be kind of treacherous. At 4000ft the road goes around Deadhorse Point, which has a big cliff on the south side and a steep slope on the north that is prone to rock slides and avalanches. The road is very narrow there and passing is treacherous. This weekend snowline appeared to start at 3500ft, and start getting deeper for good riding above 4000ft. There’s one good pullout just before Deadhorse Point at 3500ft, and another good one just after at Cache Creek at 4200ft. But there are no good spots in between.

Deep snow

Talon is a fellow Winter Bulgers climber and he just got a snowmobile, so we decided to do a shakedown trip. Hopefully we could ride to Harts Pass and then snowshoe a few peaks nearby. Skiing would be too risky with the thin snow coverage. I drove up Sunday morning and we met up at Ballard camp, then drove together from there. As expected, snow started just below 3500ft. By the time we reached the 3500ft pullout the snow was a few inches deep on the road. That would make driving around Deadhorse Point too treacherous, so we pulled out there.

The upper lot

Snowmobiles can ride on gravel for short distances up to a few miles, though it can damage the front carbides if you do it too much. But it was safer to start there than to drive around Deadhorse Point. As we unloaded another truck passed and continued driving, which seemed sketchy. We started riding by 10am, and took our time getting around Deadhorse Point. There were lots of fresh rocks that had fallen across the road. The snow got deeper on the other side, and I was very happy to have not driven there. We passed the other truck parked at Cache Creek unloading snowmobiles.

Parking the snowmobile

Beyond there the snow got deeper and deeper. We had to chainsaw out one tree, but Talon had brought his 25″ chainsaw and made quick work of it. Within an hour we reached the pass and the snow was over 2ft deep. We turned right to go towards Slate Peak as our first objective. We each got stuck in the ditch on the side where the snow was 3ft of fresh powder, and that took a while to dig out. We took a break at the parking lot above at 6400ft.

Deadhorse Point on the ride out

Early season it’s important to stick to roads to avoid things like stumps and rocks that are only thinly covered in snow. The deep powder was a bit too tempting for Talon, though, on his first time riding a snowmobile. Unfortunately his ski collided with a buried rock, and the ski did not make it out unscathed. He was able to get the snowmobile over to near the outhouse, but it couldn’t turn. So he couldn’t ride it out. I wasn’t too keen to try to tow it out 10 miles around cliffs with both of us riding my snowmobile. That seemed risky. So Talon decided he’d leave it and come back with spare parts the next weekend to fix it.

Back at the trucks

We decided to skip the side peaks and just ride out. Talon rode princess style on the sled, and I rode out slowly back to the trucks. The road had melted quite a bit on the south face in the sun, and the last mile was mostly gravel. We made it back out safely by mid afternoon and headed back home.

Video of the trip: