For me a healthy dose of fear was needed to do this safely as I’m no pro on this winter terrain. Was definitely a learning experience (lessons below). Took advantage of a low avalanche risk day and this weird winter to do a hike I doubt I’d have done in a normal one. On the way to both lakes there were signs of what looked like previous mini avalanches. My crampons were definitely worth their weight in gold today and poles helpful too.

I’ve never been on a hike before that had so many frozen waterfalls and icicles. These are seen on the way to both Source Lake and Snow Lake. Source Lake was surrounded by a whole bunch of frozen waterfalls coming off the surrounding peaks. After the junction with the trail to Source Lake, there were two times in switchbacks where it was difficult for me to identify the trail looking up, and I started to go into questionable terrain. One was the first switchback after that junction. The other was the last switchback heading down to (first switchback heading up from) Snow Lake. My gps map was super handy in helping me spot the right way. Mostly the snow today was compacted and icy except bits around Snow Lake where it reminded me of walking on a sand dune. It was absolutely bizarre to reach the overlook and see no one else there. It was more bizarre to not see or hear a single other person for the entire hike down to and up from Snow Lake.

Very thankful to have experienced this winter hike and making it safely back to my car. 8.5 miles, 2300ft, 5hr day.

Top 3 lessons learned:

-Even well laid trails turn into scary potentials for long slides when covered by snow that often turns icy

-Can’t always trust the path created by someone before us because they may have been using different gear or have a different goal in mind

-If I want to do a hike like this in winter again, I need to invest in an ice axe and skills to use one.

A lovely sunny hike to Snow Lake, then an extension to Source Lake. Absolutely beautiful weather but surprisingly deep snow.

Options are getting limited for my Corolla, so we ended up in Alpental parking lot at about 9:30. Alpental isn’t open yet but Armstrong Express was rolling for much of today so opening day must be soon. I packed my snowshoes, put spikes on and headed up the Snow Lake trail. Weather was amazingly sunny, so it was shorts/T-shirt weather on the way up. Looking straight up, the sky was that shade of blue that is almost black.

The sun was also pretty good at loosening the ice crust and there were some moderate avalanches. One at 4100 feet on the westward traverse was pretty threatening. It should freeze up nicely tonight but it will be interesting to see what tomorrow’s sleet and above-freezing temperatures do to it. Most of the way up to the lookout was OK. The trail was well packed-down but it was easy to posthole if you strayed an inch or two to the side.

It was a different story on the way down to the lake. Much colder and more difficult. The trail has been made by snowshoers so it’s not packed down and it’s easy to lose at times. The lake is frozen hard and is being used as a highway by skiers. I was intending to get to Gem Lake but I had to trailblaze, and my snowshoes had nowhere near enough surface area to prevent postholing. Sinking in snowshoes is a dispiriting experience so I took the lake route as far as the log bridge. If anything, conditions were worse from there, so back along the lake I went.

The scenery from the lake to the ridgetop was stunning. You could point your camera in any direction and feel like Ansel Adams. With wisps of cloud swirling in against the ink-dark sky, the white trees stood out beautifully.

On the way down, I had a quick look at the Source Lake trail. It looked particularly vulnerable to avalanches and I’m sure it didn’t get much better in the afternoon. Maybe stay away, unless you have skis/snowboard. Those guys were having a great time.

The trail out was notable for the huge number of people heading out in mid-afternoon wearing sneakers and with small children. If you’re not prepared, you have no chance of getting to the lookout and every chance of becoming a statistic. The exceptions were the wonderful Central Asian family having a cookout on their Jetboil. That soup smelled delicious.

Conditions change - but this is what I experienced today. 

Avalanche forecast for this region was very low today (per NWAC).  

Started the hike a little after 9:30am from the snow lake trailhead.  Snow started from the start of the  trail.  However, we never took our snowshoes out of our backpack.  The trail was super packed down, we did not post hole, not even 1x.  The trail was full of snowshoe and skiers.  We put our microspikes on 5 minutes from source lake.  Wore them the way back as well.  We used poles the whole time.  GPS said 4.75 miles round trip.  

The path -- it was covered in snow, 100% of the time.  We followed the ski / snowshoe path the entire way.  There were multiple paths - 2x I took out the GPS to make sure we were still on route.  We saw probably 30 back country skiers, and 20 snowshoe'rs total.  

Originally we were thinking we would snowshoe up pineapple pass, but we decided its been 3 weeks since we last hiked, so we just stayed at the lake and enjoyed the dancing clouds.  We brought ice axes to slide down from the pass (since we don't have skis), but we obviously didn't use go/use them. 

This hike is on avalanche terrain, so be mindful of the forecast and recreate safely out here.   

Excellent short snow hike that is so closed to Seattle. Fresh snow made it so beautiful. We used microspikes until fork to Snow Lake, then put snowshoes on, and that was really helpful. Keep in mind that there is no open restroom on the parking lot.

Decided to take both of my kids for the last hike of the year to Source Lake. Alpental was not open for skiing this weekend and I thought we could do a short snowshoeing to Source Lake from Alpental upper parking lot (Lot 4 I think).

There were cones placed on the road just before Snow Lake Trailhead so I decided to just park at the main lot and hike up the road.

I brought snowshoes and spikes but only used spikes the whole time. The snow was pretty compact and there's a great bootpath all the way to the Lake. Even though the snow looked packed, I postholed so many times once I was above the Falls. I tempted to put on my snowshoes but It wasn't that long until we got to the Lake.

I'd say, the trail was not toddler friendly after the Falls. There were short switchbacks that were narrow and steep. It was a bit outside of my comfort zone as I carried my toddler. Older kids can do it but this depends on the snow conditions and your comfort level. Be prepared with the avalanche risks although this route seems to have less risk than the summer route.

Today, the creek crossings were also mellow so I had no problem bringing my toddler up to the Falls.

We started late at around 12:45 PM and finished just before the sun set. We only met 5 backcountry skiers as we hiked up and had the lake to ourselves.

It's definitely a great last hike of the year!

Stats: 4.1 mi RT with a little over 3 hours total time. My toddler also hiked for 2 miles yay!

Happy New Year everyone!