This was my fourth trip out here in the last two weeks scouting for the optimal approaches to Bryant and Chair Peaks. Today was the first time I tried the winter or snow route southwest of the Snoqualmie River starting at the final Alpental parking lot--you know it's final because there is absolutely no way to drive beyond it. It's a wide cat track for nearly a half mile, making for a pretty easy trip in just boots. But then it more or less dead-ended at a small waterfall--I thrashed about for 20-30 minutes on boot paths uphill to the right before coming to the conclusion that I was wasting my time. Back to the cat track, I took the first small branch uphill to the SW (left of the cat track if you're walking toward Source Lake) and discovered a wealth of ski and some snow shoe tracks that led me up and either forward toward the peaks or back to the car. It was splendid and it looks like all those random trails coalesce back toward the farthest Alpental parking lot or the cat track that goes by the water tank. It would be hard to get lost trying to get back to your car. I did not take my hike far enough below Bryant to reach the back country ski runs that lead up to the Great Scott Bowl (I had hoped to ascend this to Pineapple Pass), but after checking last week's photos and some other stuff like topo maps and Beckey's Cascade Alpine Guide, I realized I turned around maybe 200-300 yards short. RATS! Man, those runs start right under Bryant and angle way up and leftward. Avalanche danger was close to nil, but that was before the snow that hit Friday the 3rd. I've never been a big fan of all those potential avalanche slopes on the summer route--haven't had problems and I check before I go tout and test the snow when I AM out there, but still.... If you have never taken this route in to the Source Lake vicinity, it is definitely worth it--more forested than the summer route on the NE side of the river and therefore more hidden from the sun on nice days, and in the snow there's a lot of "leaning traverses" on hillsides, but that's not such a bad tradeoff for avalanche safety. Tougher for me on snowshoes than an AT skier I assume. The parking lot cuts off about 0.4 miles from the distance, which is also nice, if you don't get off trail and wander like I did. Also a loop hike like one noted here about a week ago looks like a pretty good outing,

This is a very popular snowshoe and cross country ski area. This area is very beautiful with deep snow. Source Lake is small and unremarkable but the snow covered trees are great. We did the trip as a loop starting at the last parking area at Alpental (west side of valley) and returning on the summer trail route (east side). It was fun for me to see the route that goes up on the west side of the creek since this is not easily accessable during the summer. You should only come here when the Avalanche danger is Moderate or less. There are lots of avalanche gullies coming into the valley, especially on the trail on the east side of the valley (summer trail). Northwest Avalanche center website: https://www.nwac.us/ We saw a young man near source lake wearing mesh tennis shoes! Not a good idea. If you ever got stuck in a snow storm with tennis shoes then it would be very hard to get out. I recommend snowshoes for this one. Much of the journey could be done with microspikes. Today was foggy so we didn't feel it was worth it to try to make it to Snow Lake. 3.5 mi RT and 900 ft elevation gain

I want to climb Bryant Peak from the Snow Lake trail (shorter than the Melakwa Lake Trail which I really don't love) so this is the third consecutive hike I've made out there, this time getting most of the way up the gully/couloir/avalanche chute that leads to the summit block, all in the guise of scouting the route for the spring/summer. Had it been a nicer day, I might have gone for a couple more hours all the way. First off, the trail to Source Lake is close to perfect. I saw signs of a few snow releases (nobody would call them avalanches) all but one of which stopped even before they hit the trail--like a slide of 40 feet that's a few inches deep. Even when I climbed steeper, pristine snow higher up on Bryant, I didn't trigger anything larger than an orange rolling downhill. So the snow is in pretty good shape. The hike to the Source overlook took 58 minutes (two ski mountaineers ahead of me, heading up Chair Peak, kept me from burning myself out on the easy trail which I sometimes do), then about an hour to get to the base of the gully to the NW of Bryant (between Bryant and Chair) at 4,460 ft. Kicking steps with the wrong snowshoes was trying, but I spent 40 minutes going up another 300 feet before deciding that, in light of the darkening clouds and the unpleasant prospect of down-climbing in same snowshoes, I might as well turn around. The side-step down-climb was the worst part. Interesting, but a little more tense than the upclimb. EDIT: Just found out that the gully I climbed is a "far back country" ski run (via Alpental's website) called China Chute and the cliffs to the right are the Great Wall of China. Who knew? Kudos to the AT skiers below me who called up to see if I was okay! And I suppose to skiers, any clod in snow shoes really isn't "okay." ;-) About an hour back to the Source overlook and 40 minutes out to the car. All told, a fine day in the mountains. I just wish the promised "mostly sunny" forecast stayed in effect past 10 am and that I hadn't worked out the day before. Ah well, next time.

Another perfect day, another attempt on Snow Lake. Or at least the pass/overlook leading to it. Three days ago I hiked out from the Source Lake overlook to see the switchback for the Snow Lake trail I had missed. Today I went back with my 14 year-old son. 15 degrees in the Alpental lot and a little foggy about 8:30 when we started. Trail in great shape and we got to the switchback in a little under an hour, and to the top of the pass about an hour later. The trail gets a little mangled switchbacking up and with descending climbers plunge-stepping and pioneering new routes, it is a moderate jumble, but it just takes a little extra work, that's all. We stayed in our boots and left the snowshoes on my back. No traction devices needed. Glorious views and plenty of company at the top (including a surprise HS reunion, which was surreal to overhear). Even more company on the route out, including one group of 12-15 with as many dogs of nearly as many different breeds (including, yes, a poor Chihuahua). That was an interesting group to pass. We spent about 25 minutes at the top and just about an hour on the hike out (we short-cut the biggest switchback by accidentally taking a cutoff that we assumed was somebody's glissade chute, but turned out to have been carved by a giant snowball about 4 ft wide that we discovered at the bottom of the hill). Knowing roughly where the trail should be, my son navigated, found some tracks, and got us back on trail quickly, and back to the car in about an hour. 3:28 total time.

Arrived at the parking lot around 9:30 am and it was almost full. We were lucky to find a spot without much effort. Lots of skiers come here on weekend and be prepared to come early or might have to park a little bit far away from the trail head. I-90 was cmpletely fine. My ford focus had some issue around 70-80 mph (perhaps due to strong wind) and after slowing down to 65 mph, it was ok. There was some slushy snow near te parking lot but everyone drives carefully and never found any issue. We just followed the trail and the snow was well packed. We even saw someone with spikes on the trail. No issue either. Snowshoe can help when one wants to go to fluffier part, like we did by climbing Chair Peak. We arrived at the source like around noon and had some snacks. Then we tried to go over the Chair Peak to take a look at Snow Lake but didn't succeed. We headed back around 1:00 pm. By mistake, we took a lower trail, which is much fluffier and made us really slow. Finally we tried to get back to snow lake trail, which took us quite some efforts. If you are not prepared, might want t stay on snow/source lake trail because it is much easier. We got back to the parking lot around 3:00pm. Really some work for the body. Might want to come back for snow lake later.