Summary: Snowshoes advised but not needed to reach the summit, road is unpleasant but drivable in a Subaru Crosstrek, gunfire is sporadic but not deafening. No detectable avalanche activity.
To TH: Swakane Canyon road is more-or-less free of snow and could be driven by anyone in a Smartcar (though you don't see many of those in Central Washington), but the windy road to the trailhead proper is a different story. Large amounts of snow, slush, vast potholes (that looked more like potlakes given the snowmelt), and moderately sized rocks might make a driver in a low-clearance vehicle hesitate somewhat. There's ample - though covered by two inches or so of snow- parking by the gate that indicates the start to the hike. At that time I made the fateful decision to leave our snowshoes behind: after all, how much snow could there be?
TH to Switchback at 2600ft: We headed up the old forest road, following a group of hunters. The grade was gentle, and the snow cover modest, between two and three inches. There were near constant views across the canyon, with the low-lying mist and occasional lonely tree adding a certain mystery. That said, trudging through a forest road does get old after a while, and I was glad to take the opportunity to go cross country at the switchback located at around 2600ft and leave the hunters behind.
Switchback to (false) summit at 3900ft: Kicking in steps in the very powdery snow, we made our way in a northeasterly fashion, aiming for the flat-ish plateau south of the peak labelled 3923. There was just enough powder to keep us from trampling on grasses, and we had a pleasant (but tiring) ascent, gaining a thousand feet in around half a mile, ending up at a scenic overlook at 3600ft. After a quick break, we hiked up increasingly snowy slopes to the tree-filled false summit at 3900ft, occasionally accompanied by the resident pack of mule deer. Had the hunters followed us, they would surely have been eating venison that night...
False summit to true summit at 4300ft: From our perch amidst the trees, the saddle directly to the south of our target summit was apparent. What was also soon apparent was that there was a ton of snow up there: at times we were wading through nearly two feet of fresh powder, which quickly filled my boots (in a typical act of heroic selflessness, I had given my gaiters to my partner). That said, this section was mercifully short, and soon we dropped our packs and prepared for the steep ascent up to the peak. I put on my microspikes and kicked in steps for roughly two hundred vertical feet, then began using my hands to find buried rocks beneath the snow. The terrain was somewhat challenging, with uneven footing, variable snow depths, slippery rocks, and other fun winter features. Luckily there's no major cliff section nor any cornices that I could detect, and the relative steepness of the summit pyramid should reduce the risk of avalanches, so I wasn't too concerned about perishing. Views from the small summit plateau were quite good, but as we were worried about running out of daylight we didn't linger.
Down the mountain: The descent down the summit pyramid back to the saddle was the most difficult part of the trip, and my less-experienced partner (who had our only trekking pole) had a few tumbles. Plunge stepping in the fresh powder was complicated by the uneven rock spacing, so it was slow going. After reclaiming our packs from the saddle, the way down was uneventful: we passed by the herd of mule deer a final time, then soon found our way back down to the misty canyon floor.
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