We skied (cross country and skinned) to the lookout following the road. The road was drifted deeply in spots and gets enough wind that we were breaking trail the whole way until we met up with the snowmobile trail at mile 3 where the road was more sheltered in the trees and the trail more packed down. The last 3/4 mile is completely exposed, extremely windy, and the steepest part of the trail. The wind at the top is extreme - there is little snow at the top but what is there is hurled against you with such force that it stings! Wearing ski goggles and face masks do not make you a wimp! The lookout was well stocked with newspapers, firewood, ax, matches - it took about 3hrs for the lookout to warm up enough to feel comfortable and we were up every few hours at night to add more wood but we stayed plenty warm. We didn't dare open any of the shutters for fear of breaking the windows or loosing our heat which was a bummer. On our ski out the wind was so extreme that we we decided to duck into the trees behind the outhouse and bushwhack our way down to the road which turned out to be a pretty nice route to go. You only have to walk 15 feet into the trees and the wind is almost non-existent but you'll want snowshoes or fatter ski's than cross country since the snow is about 3ft deep. It was quite the adventure - just be really, really prepared for all sorts of adverse weather! **The latch on the outside of the lookout door was broken when we arrived so we found the door open when we got there. The door handle/latch isn't strong enough to keep the door shut on it's own so once inside we had to use the ax handle to keep it shut. I reported it to the FS.

Minus the wind it was great!

Minus the wind it was great!