Two winters ago I was contracted to haul visitors to a remote resort near huntington lake. The road from the plowed pavment went up from 7000'elevation to over 10,000' in less than 2miles, over kaiser pass and then wound 14 miles down the back side. In good conditions we could make the run in about 2 hours. We had brought one group in for a 4 day stay we took them back out and we brought a large group back to the resort for a 6 night stay. There were several storms headed their way but they were well prepared, at least they thought needless to say it snowed all day and night for 12 days. The new snow accumulation was over 14' thats on top of a good 7' base of old snow.the first day we tried to go back in to the lodge to get the group out we took my thiokol, my tucker with belts and steel cleats was at the lodge along with the lodges steel track tucker. The plan was to work towards each other, the problem being 10'+ of powder and a very steep switch back road to the top of kaiser pass(10,000') then a narrow road down the back side with 1000' drop off cliffs
When we started up the hill it was very clear we were in for a very long day, the snow was so soft the cat was sinking over the top of the tracks and was pushing snow up to the windshield, after the first mile of low gear and full throttle at that rate I knew the fifty gallons of fuel we brought would not be enough to break trail all 16 miles refuel the tuckers and come back out. we would have to wait for the snow to harden and pack itself down. My attempt the next day was on snowmobiles built for deep powder, the snow was just too soft even for snowmobiles, if you stoped at all you would be stuck for an hour while you tramped the snow down by foot and build a ramp so you could get going again.I called the lodge and told them it was hopeless they were not making any progress either, we decided to call in a chopper to pick up the visitors and fly them to the nearby ski resort. once the chopper was called the crew at the lodge started packing down the snow with the tuckers to make a helipad. It was a full month before the trail was broke to the lodge and even though a month had passed it still was no easy task. It took us all day to go down that back side traversing the ledges was enough to test anyones metal. The hosts at the camp were glad to see us and I was glad to finnaly get to my tucker and get it out of there. As for how deep of snow can a snow cat go through? I really depends on the type of snow, tempreture and terrain. My rule is once you are pushing snow with the grill you are nearly at your limit. You dont want to cook an engine or break a drivetrain part far from pavement.
In deep powder like we were in you would sink to your waist in snow even walking in the snow cat tracks. I have added cross country skis and snow shoes to my list of neccesites. If any one ever wants to come this way for a snow cat run I know a lot of good trails, plenty of rental cabins as well as snowmobile rentals.