This was my second-ever trip "climbing" on skis and it went so much worse than my first last year (same "trail"), mainly due to conditions.  I'm no expert, but the snow seemed to be so packed down and almost icy that even though it was not steep except in a few spots, I had problems both going up (back-sliding, losing skis) and down (no control, both thrilling and terrifying).  A couple inches of relatively new snow would have made a huge improvement.

Got to the "end of the line" parking lot by 9:30 on a gray 30 degree day with almost no cars--I had hiked and snow-shoed here extensively last winter and this was the least crowded day I've ever seen, and I guess the snow conditions were a big reason.  Some patches of grass and rock and snow cavities, which I did not see last winter, plus free flowing water in the creek/river, so it's still early and a bit warm.  Got to Source Lake about an hour in and tried to climb above, but there was some avalanche debris (a few days old, maybe an inch of snow dusting it, nothing to be concerned about) and it was hard as rock and icy, hard for me to ski over as I went up; I realized it would be awful to try to ski down this crud as well, so I admitted defeat and turned around, peeled off my skins (mistake, given the conditions), and rocketed out of there. 

The "trail" has some narrow patches just a foot wide or so, and as hard as the surface was, it was tough to establish an alternate path beside the hard-pack.  Some of the nearly level traverses were great fun, but I was really not able to dig an edge in and at the 10-15 foot hill about 1/5 of the way in, I totally wiped out even though I came to a complete stop at the top and began down by side-slipping down.  Somehow, I just went flying off--to the right, yard sale and pretty bruised from the crash into ice chunks. 

Should have stuck to snowshoes, but I left them at home.  Live and learn.

Many more details about our trip to Source Lake can be found here. 

We had a lovely New Year's Day snowshoe to Source Lake to ring in 2018. Despite the inversion layer that kept us in a cloud the entire day, there were plenty of amazing things to see on the trail. 

The parking lot at Alpental was icy, but we had no issues in our subaru. We went up the valley to source lake then looped back on the winter snow lake trail. We planned on starting the source lake trail then crossing the creek to climb up to the snow lake approach, but the creek crossing did not look super stable, so we reversed our planned loop. 

A few parts of the lake are still visible, and there is a giant avalanche debris field above it. We crossed about 5 different avalanche debris fields on the way back to the parking lot, so we were very glad to the be there on a day with low avalanche risk. Several of the creeks crossing the trail on the snow lake side were not snowed over yet, leading to some dicey crossings. 

All in all, it was a lovely day at Source Lake.

beautiful way to ring in 2018!! the parking lot was less crowded than we thought it would be, and even though there were a decent amount of groups out, there are so many social trails you can go your own way. you won't get lost either, they all lead to the same place. you can follow the creek the whole way and then it'll cut up into a null, which is where all the trails eventually lead. the part right before the null is an avalanche area so use judgement! though the lake was basically snow covered, it was a beautiful place! fun to watch the backcountry skiers too. theres remnants of an avalanche across the lake, but there are plenty of trails to cross and explore. great little hike!

Decided to snowshoe after the Christmas snowfall which backfired just a little bit. The road up to the Alpental Ski Area was fine in my 2WD sedan without chains. We made it there at about 9:30 with plenty of parking left. The recent snow created a very fluffy powder; great for skiers and snowboarders, not so great for snowshoers.

This was my first time snowshoeing this trail so I didn't know I was supposed to take the first left where it forks (it's clearly carved about a quarter mile up). I saw snowshoers way up ahead, so I followed their tracks. Turns out they were ice climbers looking to top rope from the rocks way up on the hill, directly looking down at the parking lot. Once we got up to those rocks, after sliding and falling in the deep, steep snow, we realized we weren't on the trail. Nevertheless, we had brought saucer sleds and enjoyed rocketing down to the fork. We took the proper trail for a bit before turning back. Weather was great and the snow was fun. Despite taking a wrong turn, it was a good time and the views along the whole way were worth it.

Snowshoes/skis are a must on this trail, especially with the new snow. And I recommend the saucer sleds - they make the way back much more extreme.