Alta Mountain, Rachel Lake — Saturday, May. 23, 2015

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

On this "no-snow" year, the ridge up to Alta Mountain is already mostly snow free. We had an ice axe and microspikes but did not use them. Like other posts, I agree the forest road has too many potholes. They are impossible to avoid. The trail up to Rachel Lake was rather dry. For example, there wasn't any water running down the trail except right near the lake and only a few large mudholes. There are a few trees to get over, under, or around, but they don't slow you down much. The glacier lilies and trilliums were all over both sides of the trail. After Rachel Lake, on the way to Alta Mountain (or Lila Lake if you wish to go there), you'll find quite a bit of snow. There is snow on the way around the right side of Rachel Lake. It may be hard to find if you are the first one to go that way, but it's melting fast and I expect the path will be clear very soon. As it gains elevation up to the ridge, the snow cleared and we were back on an obvious dirt path. Then we hit snow again as it neared the ridge, and the ridge was completely snow covered but not deep. If you get to the ridge, the trail to Alta is initially hard to find. For example, if you find the sigpost, you'll see that most people just headed straight across a wide opening in the trees, but that drops off the other side of the ridge. You need to just step backward from the signpost about 15-20', and look to your right. You should see a bit of a path that goes near the rocks on the right side of the ridge as you head toward Alta. Just stay on the ridge crest or just left of it and you'll find clear path soon enough. It has a few more spots of snow to cross. We missed the small cairn that marks the climbers path to the left up the ridge to Alta. It was mostly foggy... excuses, excuses. We had gone onward across a rock field into a basin with a tarn before realizing we'd missed the ridge. The tarn was still ice/snow covered because it's shaded most of the day, I'm sure. So we just went up along the left side of the tarn and then up the slope leftward to the ridge and caught the Alta Mt. climbers path on the ridge itself. It was mostly clear of snow, with only a few patches to cross. All of the patches were uncorniced, wide, and easy to cross. There were only two or three steep-sided patches as we neared the peak itself. And, right on the peak was a very steep patch that we just avoided by crossing on the dirt to the right and then just scrambling up the dirt slope to a 10' section of snow. The day was foggy below 5500', but we were out in the sun or only light fog as we climbed the ridge! If it hadn't been clear enough, we probably would have headed back. At the summit, we saw three guys who had day-hiked from the lake. We had lunch and headed down. We followed the ridge all the way down and found the small cairn on the Lila Lake trail junction that we had missed earlier. It was covered with a little snow. We cleared it off, but it's a very small cairn just to the left of the trail and not very obvious. I recommend poles for the climb and descent of Rachel Lake trail. It's hard on the legs and knees, and we made it harder by adding the climb of Alta in a day-trip. I don't doubt that this will be a good year to hike high during the early season. Rachel Lake sits at 4700' and even above that the snow was rather thin.