Source Lake - Winter Route — Sunday, Feb. 12, 2017

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

We did a counterclockwise loop starting at the Alpental ski area. To access the summer trail route on the northwest side of the creek we went cross country starting just across from the Sissel ski lift. There was a short decent to the creek ( more of a slide) then an nice easy traverse up to the summer trail route. The summer route was very difficult to navigate in several places. There was 4-8 inches of soft snow on top of a steeply slanted ice layer that formed from the rain last weekend. This made for lots of slipping and lost footing in spite of snowshoes. It was much more difficult than it was when we were there 2 weeks ago. I didn't enjoy this part. I also wanted to mention that my wife has a pair of new MSR Revo Trail snowshoes and they had much better traction than my 20 year old Tubbs. Even with the Revos the going was tough in places. The return trip on the southeast side of the creek was much easier. If I did it again, I would definitely have just done an out and back on the southeast side. The weather was beautiful and the snow covered mountains were quite scenic. 3.5 mi RT but felt more like 8