As with all my great adventures, this was not the original plan for the day. We set of nice and early to tackle Habrich's ridge from Sky Pilot Valley, but once we reached the clearing with the junction we uncovered that it was not recently used. Deciding against trying to break a trail up the steep incline our sights turned back toward Sky Pilot. The valley trail itself is still coated with a layer of icy snow that requires microspikes, and going past the “end of marked trail” sign requires snowshoes. We switched into our snowshoes and set off, reminiscing about trying to tackle this trail in the pouring rain and trying not to fall into a river.
I soon discovered that the river would not be an issue, as there was just so much snow. The few markers that exist on the backcountry trail were covered in snow, and eventually, we hit a point where the trail did not have any footprints. Deciding against trying to navigate along a proper trail, my companion and I set our sights on a steep incline. We struggled up toward a ridge and ended up steering away into the trees once it got steeper.
Note: there are many traces of recent avalanches in this area.