Snowshoe up to South Bessemer with the boys - Their trip report on WTA:

We are the 'lil Mountain Goats, Terrence (11), and Nathan (14), and on Saturday we successfully climbed Bessemer Mountain. It was an easy drive on the Middle Fork Snoqualmie Road and easy to find the gate described in books and trip reports. The first 4 miles are a steady, not-too-steep gain on a very wide trail, which is technically South Bessemer Road. Lots of evidence of logging from the past, and there are several other roads and paths that split off from the trail. We saw very few people on the road. At about 3 1/2 miles, the snow started appearing. At 4 miles, where you split to the right, we had to put on gaiters and snowshoes.

There had been no other people since the recent snow, so we had to completely break trail in very deep and soft snow. It was extremely tiring and slow going, especially for our dad. Luckily, Nathan is big enough now where he was able to relieve dad of his duties a few times and lead our group in the fresh snow. For these last couple of miles the scenery was extraordinary - it was very quiet and serene, with nobody there and the landscape completely covered in fresh snow. Route finding was pretty easy, although we did utilize the GPS to make sure we stayed on the right road/track.

Once we slogged up the final couple of miles it got very windy, very quickly. We learned a lesson about securing our gear today - one of us took off a glove, and set it down on the snow and the wind immediately picked it up, and blew it down the steep, west slope of the mountain (luckily we had a spare!). We were very fortunate that the views from the summit were nice and clear, given the recent gloomy weather. Mount Rainier was out, and the Snoqulamie Pass area peaks to the east were very clear - we enjoyed trying to identify all the peaks. We huddled together behind a rock to stay warm and eat a little lunch. Due to the wind and the time, we didn't spend too long up top. Because it was such slow going with the deep snow, it took us 5 1/2 hours to get to the top (8:15 am to -1:45)

Making our way down was fast, and the soft snow was was easy to go through with snowshoes, providing cushion for our feet. We made quick progress the forest road and got to the car just as the last of the sun vanished a few minutes after 5:00 - glad we had our headlamps! It gets dark fast this time of the year.

This was a great, if tiring, hike and snowshoe right now of 13.5 miles. Be sure to bring proper gear, know where you're going, have some experience and bring plenty warm clothes. Thanks for reading, and be safe!