A March Miracle

What’s the lowest “mountain” in the Seattle area? By the definition that the name needs to include “mountain” or “peak”, it is probably Cougar “Mountain”, elevation 1,614 ft, a broad hill at the western end of the “Issaquah Alps” that sits on the border of Bellevue and Issaquah. It happens to also be where Kelly and I live.

A ways above sea level, the top of Cougar definitely sees more snow than the lowlands, but it rarely holds any snow or develops a “snowpack”. Still, Kelly and I have long dreamt of skiing Cougar during a lowland snow event, straight from our door.

Just when it seemed like we would not get a lowland snow event during the morbid 2026 winter, a mid-March storm came out of nowhere. Weather forecasts were calling for some wet snow in the lowlands, but no real accumulation. But when we woke up on freaky Friday the 13th, there was a coat of white on the ground a few hundred feet above sea level. The forecasts said it would switch to rain by mid morning, but it just kept snowing.

It snowed hard all day, but the accumulation was just a few inches at our house – the wet snow just consolidated more as more fell on top. When our power went out in the afternoon, ending our work day, we decided to go out and play in the snow. Kelly suggested that we try to ski the Shangri-la Trail. I was skeptical that there was enough snow, but figured why not?

We had to hike for a few minutes to start, since the roads and sidewalks were all booted out. But a little bit up the hill, the accumulations noticeably increased, there were fewer footprints, and we could skin the sidewalk.

Around 700 ft, we left the road and started up the Shangri-la Trail. Because of canopy cover, coverage was less here. In places, there was barely an inch. But because of how the snow was straight WAP (wet ass powder), it covered the trail nicely and made for easy skinning. There were also a plethora of open creeks to cross, as is expected with such “early season” conditions.

Above 1,200 ft, it really started to get deep. The deciduous alder trees allowed more snow to reach the ground. It almost seemed… skiable.

By the time we reached the Harvey Manning Trailhead at 1450 ft, there was about a foot of snow on the ground! On elevated surfaces, like the picnic table, it was closer to 15 inches!

Now came the moment of truth – was it skiable? We ripped our skins and pointed it downhill. We were pleasantly surprised to find that the heavy snow was very supportable, and the glide was still nice in our skin track. With the low angle of the trail, we hardly had to turn!

As we got lower, I kept waiting for the coverage to become too thin to ski. But the thinner it got, the more we were emboldened. Even with barely an inch of coverage, the snow was so saturated with water that it covered the surface incredibly well. We never really hit anything, cruising over snow so shallow you could see the dirt and rocks through it. It was so thin, yet so in.

We completed a full descent of the Shangri-la trail, without once having to take our skis off! The cherry on top was skiing down upper Talus drive past stuck cars on the road.

This was an incredibly silly and entertaining adventure! The close to home adventures are so much fun, and nothing gets closer than out your front door. We always wanted to ski Cougar, but we did not expect to get the opportunity in March, especially during this terrible winter. We will certainly remember this one for a long time!