Did the P3-Defiance loop Friday after turning back a couple weeks ago due to treacherous snow along the ridge. Parked at Exit 42 and took the short trail up to the Ira Spring trailhead - I like this approach because you get 600' bonus gain and don't have to drive that unpleasant road. No snow on the P3 trail or ridge until you get to the base of Defiance. (We skipped the side-scramble to Web, but it looked snow-free as well.)  While the P3 trail gets quite steep, the ridge provides no difficulties and in fact has a pretty well established boot path. Snow begins after it enters the forest and soon starts heading up Defiance.  I had no problem kicking steps in the snow with running shoes, but if it were icy you'd want spikes and an axe. Coming down Defiance was interesting; you want considerable confidence in steep snow, and I felt no shame checking GPS regularly to stay on the trail, which was mostly snow-covered to Mason Lake.  We took the forbidden "old trail" down (sorry, but it's much prettier, if rougher) and enjoyed the scenic creek and large trees. It felt good to take full advantage of what looks like the last sunny day for a while.

Fun day!  We took the trail up to P3.  It was snowing starting at about 4k feet.  Gorgeous!  The trail was pretty much snow free and easy to navigate.  Socked in at the top to the south, but we were able to see Spider Lake on the other side of P3.  

The ridge looked do-able, so we made our way across.  There were some cornices on the north facing side we avoided.  At this point, it was still fairly easy to navigate.  

Once we hit the portion of the ridge in the trees we took out our ice axes and microspikes.  We skipped the summit of Defiance only because it was socked in, we had both been up before, and we were mostly interested in doing the loop.  Ice axes were very handy from here on out.  I had one slip, and we talked to someone later in the day who had to use their pole to self-arrest (that pole was BENT!).  The snow was fairly firm with only a few serious postholes.  I had one posthole right over a rock that woke me up fast.  Route-finding skills are necessary.  

At about 4400 feet the snow became shallow and a bit easier to walk on.  Once you climb out of the Mason Lake basin you are snow-free until you get back to the car.  The clouds cleared up for us and we had views on the way back!  

OK, we specifically did not climb Web via Putrid Pete's. Instead, SoaringEagle, DaniilMag, Kidz Won't Hike and I started out at the Dirty Harry's TH and approached Web from the west. This is a fun and challenging winter variation, with the right conditions. We found a GPX file on peakbagger from 2022. Daniil and I brought our ski touring stuff and that was mostly a bust. Not a lot of opportunities for skinning up - too low snow cover, steep forest, or too steep and unconsolidated under a weak crust up high. We essentially booted all the way to the summit. We did find about 1/2 mile of decent skiing and some powder from the summit to just past the lake. We saw no other people on the trails all day. 

Hiked about 3 miles on the Dirty Harry's Peak trail which is snow free to that point, with a bit of ice up high. We branched off right at about 3400' elevation to travel east towards Web and put on microspikes. Still mostly snow free in the forest for a while, there is a trail but it's more overgrown and more faint in places. I saw a few pink ribbons but they weren't plentiful. Eventually we were on snow full time. Soaring and Kidz had snowshoes and that helped mitigate punching through the crust which was annoying. Since we couldn't effectively skin, Daniil and I just had to deal with the postholing. It's not the worst I've encountered. Snow alternates from crusty layer to almost ice especially up high. There's some steep terrain up high and runout slopes, so we had to be careful to not slip. Since Daniil and I were carrying skis, Soaring and Kidz made the summit 15 mins before us. Once we attained the final ridge, I decided to park my skis there and boot up the remaining 300' to the summit. On the ridge and above it was windy and cold so we didn't hang around. Views were fantastic though with the storm moving in and Rainier in our faces! I dropped back down to my skis, had a quick snack and drink, and then set off. I was a little worried since it looked like sheer ice in spots but it turned out to be pretty grippy skiing. And like I mentioned, we actually had sections with 4" of powder too! After we got down to rougher terrain it was time to carry the skis again and it was a long 4.5 mile slog back to the TH. 

Stats: 10 miles, 4200' gain, 7:15 total time, 2:00 stopped time

Gear: Poles and microspikes were used. Crampons and ice axe were not. Wore trail runners while on Dirty Harry's then switched to my ski boots, wore spikes on those. Rocky Talkies for all 4 of us, helped communicate when we were separated

GPX: https://www.peakbagger.com/climber/ascent.aspx?aid=2756158

Arrived at 9:30am on a sunny Thursday. I parked at the end of Tinkham road, exit 42 off I-90. I prefer that to the Ira Spring trailhead because it saves about 15 min of driving and adds about 15 min of hiking. Just go to the north end of the road and there's a little spot you can park.

There are 2 connector trails from Tinkham up to the Ira Spring trails - one that goes straight to the Putrid Pete's Peak (P3) trail and one that takes you to the road just east of the Ira Spring trailhead. I took the first on the way up and the second on the way down. The connector trail going to P3 was pretty ugly for the first half and involved going along a logging road that was strewn with large logs and branches and thorny bushes. It suddenly turned into a nice bootpath in the woods after about 0.9 mi though and then it was quite pleasant. I had to follow the route on my phone (Gaia) pretty closely to find that bootpath initially.

I made it to within about 0.25 mi of the peak and then turned back, basically right where the trail emerges from the trees for the last time. The snow got deeper as I was going up and at that point was about 2-3", which was just deep enough to make it very hard to find the trail and nearly impossible to figure out where I could safely put my hands and feet. The trail gets very steep as you get higher and I was already worried about the descent and didn't want to make it any longer than necessary so I decided to call it. The views were impressive from this point but of course you're only getting the south facing view.

I'm not much of a winter scrambler or route finder so it's possible that people with more expertise might have a better time on this trail in these conditions. The descent was very slow and I made good use of my gloves and rain pants staying low and in contact with the ground, at least until I got back into the trees and out of the snow. It was pretty hard on my knees but didn't feel as sketchy as I was expecting.

I took a sojurn on the Dirty Harry connector trail to the Little Balcony on my way back since my hike was shorter than planned. It was a pleasant trail and a nice spot for a sandwich, but the view was underwhelming after being above the treeline on P3 and the roar of I-90 there is a bit much.

I took the other connector trail back to Tinkham, going out past the Ira Spring trailhead and picking up the connector trail from the road. It was a much nicer trail than the connector to P3, and parallels Mason Creek the whole way.

One last thing I'll note is that the P3 trail was a bit confusing in places. It seemed like the trail branched a handful of times and only one way was correct. If you chose incorrectly you'd wander in the woods for 50 yards or so and then the trail would disappear and you'd need to backtrack or bushwhack to find the main trail again.

I only saw 3 people all day: 2 people going up the P3 trail in running gear which sounded like a poor choice to me, and one guy on the Ira Spring trail with an off leash dog.

I finally got a chance to bag this peak!  P3 has been on my list for a while and got an opportunity to hike it this past weekend with one of my hiking buddies.  (NOTE: We only summited P3, not Web Mountain on this hike.)  The trail starts out as gradual switchbacks through the forest as we ascended up the 1st segment of the trail.  The terrain then got rockier and steeper as we continued our ascent towards the summit.  We had to use our hands at times as we scrambled up the trail.  The views from P3 summit were amazing!  The weather was partly sunny/cloudy and was clear enough to see Mt. Rainier and the distant ranges from the summit.  

We made our way back down after we finished eating snack/lunch, resting and taking photos.  The descent from P3 summit was one of the tougher descents I have done in a while.  I personally think that going up was easier than going down this trail!  LOL!  Like the previous trip reports suggested, hiking poles are highly recommended while descending from the summit.  I took my time going down, minding my step and even using my hands to down climb some sections.  I took us under 3hrs for the ascent and descent.  Nevertheless, the views were well worth it!  Happy trails! 

**Check out vlog of this hike on my Youtube channel below.