Snow Lake, Melakwa Lake & Chair Peak Lake — Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021

We were two backcountry skiers who circumnavigated Chair Peak, a major peak in the Snoqualmie Pass region. We started our trip at 8:15AM from the Alpental lower parking lot. The weather was a little stormy with lots of fresh snow which caused visibility to be variable throughout the day. There were so many people around us going to the backcountry which made us super excited for our objective. 

Our goal was to go around Chair Peak counterclockwise so our first major stop was Snow Lake. The powder was deep and avalanche conditions were moderate so we moved conservatively and made sure to consider the slope angle and snow before skiing down. Snow Lake felt like a dreamy snow globe as we traversed to the Northwest side of the lake. We had to wear our ski googles and shells as the wind was persistent in this open area. As we glided across the frozen lake, we got our first glimpse of Chair Peak and it's complex features. For a peak that is only 6,238 feet tall, it sure looks like a hard peak to climb!

We reached the other side of Snow Lake before noon. Our next major stop was Chair Peak Lake. We went a little too far East which got us off track but we were able to find out quickly enough and traverse back to our original track. We did our best to stay on moderate angle terrain as there was a lot of evidence of storm slab avalanches around us. The powder was remarkable and we saw many folks skiing near us. Chair Peak Lake was stunning in the snow and we saw little glimpses of Kaleetan Peak in the fog. 

Our next objective was to cross Melakwa Pass. We had to be especially careful going up this pass as there were very large cornices at the top. When we reached the top of Melakwa Pass, we saw Melakwa Lake and backside of Chair Peak. We did our best to remain high when we were skiing to Melakwa Lake as there was evidence of a stream and some debris at the bottom of the basin. Our last climb of the day was another saddle between Chair and Bryant Peak. 

At the top of our last ascent, we saw an incredible coulior to ski down. We took it slowly as it was dark at this point but we had lots of fun skiing some incredible snow! We did trigger small wet loose and slab avalanches but overall we were able to descent down to Source Lake safely. Looking back at our track revealed we skied our first double black diamond coulior called Bryant Coulior! We saw the orange glow of the Summit at Snoqualmie ski resort which got us excited to finish the day. We were officially done and back at our cars by 7:30PM. 

This trip was so incredible and taught me so much. Here are a couple of my takeaways:

• Type of skis matter. I have skis that are more ski mountaineering focused and I struggled a bit in the thick powder. I was able to make it work overall but I think some thicker skis are going to be my next purchase in the near future.

• Start this trip early! We did a lot of ascending and got off track once during our journey. We would have finished before dark if we started our trip two hours earlier.

• We did awesome mitigating avalanche terrain! We made sure our spacing was good when we were crossing questionable terrain and kept good communication throughout our journey. Take AIARE 1 if you want to do a trip like this!

More Information on this Trip Report

• https://strava.app.link/t5xpkYO9udb