Still plenty of snow above 3000' but it was above freezing when we went up and looks like it will remain
warmer this week. Trees still had lots of snow but were continuing to shed their consolidating snow load.
We drove beyond Alpental ski area to the end of the plowed road in a low clearance vehicle. We departed
up the groomed road and then put on the snowshoes as we headed off-road over to the stream that flows
from Source Lake, which is the headwaters of the Snoqualmie River. We decided to stay on the west side, since we discovered on our last trip it is more steep and difficult traveling above the falls, east of the stream.
It took about an hour and a half to reach the lake, which is almost totally covered with snow. The GPS said it was about 1.5 miles to the lake although the guide book I checked said 5 miles round trip. We wandered beyond the lake up near some frozen falls above being cautious of possible avalanching from the steepening slope. Then we headed to the ridge south of Snow Lake and had lunch, before heading down. During lunch I dug a pit to check the layers and found the first hard layer about 8 inches down, with new snow on top. So even though conditions for an avalanche had been reduced on the west side, always
proceed cautiously. Also check: http://www.nwac.us/ before going out.
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