Source Lake - Winter Route, Snow Lake - Winter — Monday, Jan. 30, 2012

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

A snowshoe hike to Source Lake and then up to the top of the ridge overlooking Snow Lake. About 7 miles round trip and total elevation gain of 1500’ for the route we took to Source and then the ridge climb. The roundtrip to Source is about 3.5 miles and 700’ of elevation gain. We parked in the upper parking lot at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass, arriving later than usual at 11:30am. Already about 8 cars in the lot. There was about 6” of fresh snow on the road and we actually needed to put chains on our car to get to the lot after getting stuck halfway up. We could have parked at the lower, first lot and walked, but we had the chains and decided we’d save our energy for the trail proper. Trail starts at the North East corner of the parking lot and is easy to see (no signs). It is a broad snow road and passes a water tower soon along the way. Not too far in (less than 1/2 a mile) the road will turn down a hill steeply and usually (as this time) there is a split in routes. Going down the road/hill will keep you close the creek (North Fork of the Snoqualmie) up to the waterfall area where you’ll climb steeply to gain about 600’ before reaching the top of the waterfall ridge and continuing on. The other route will stay left at the junction and traverse higher along the Western slopes of the valley (underneath Bryant, the Tooth, etc). This is the route we took as the snow was stable and avalanche danger had passed. The exposed slopes are NOT recommended when avalanche condition are present. We passed through a few areas of avalanche debris from the previous cycle. At about 1.75 miles you’ll reach Source Lake. It is nearly all covered in snow and it is so small that it looks like nothing more than a creek poking through the snow cover in a couple places. It’s at the head of the valley and the large snow bowl below Chair Peak will be just beyond it. This is a good turn around point for a good easy snowshoe trip. Weather was good (cold and snowy) for traveling on, so we circled Source Lake and headed up the Eastern side of the snow bowl. It is a steep climb and the snow was wet powder 24” deep. We angled and switchbacked up the slope through the trees and finally attained the ridge at about 4450’ in elevation. From the “snow bowl” approach we traversed across the top of the ridge to the East (right) to the Snow lake overlook, which is just a mound of white. No views as fogs and clouds filled the lake basin. 3 other parties of snowshoers, and 1 group of BC Skiers (12 of them) were met on the trail. Poles and Snowshoes on the trail to Source needed (though if the trail is packed down you could get by without snowshoes. Ice Ax and/or poles and snowshoes on the ridge climb were used. Be sure to check snow/avalanche conditions carefully before climbing past Source Lake to the ridge as there is high potential for avalanche danger here. Photos of hike here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33346716@N03/sets/72157629114416109/