First time on the trail, brought our little dog. great snow and really fun trail. It seems like there are several places to get on/off it--lots of skiers hiking up to do back-country skiing. Parked in lower parking lot and followed some other groups to the trail head (one of them). Great trail but more crowded than i was expecting. We'll be back!

Flickr: http://bit.ly/source-lake One of the ways getting to Source Lake is to take the Snow Lake Trail. Not sure if there's a hiker's path to the lake at the last big switchback leading up to the ridge to Snow Lake, but that's where one can begin their short scramble down to the lake. Met two lovely French ladies by the parking lot who were in need of a place to snowshoe, so I took them on an easy scramble. The lake was largely covered in snow and I couldn't tell how big it really was. We saw some people on the other side of the basin snowshoeing while taking photos by the lake. So instead of going back the way we came from, we made a loop to the other side of the basin then back to the parking lot.

A snowshoe hike to Source Lake and then up to the top of the ridge overlooking Snow Lake. About 7 miles round trip and total elevation gain of 1500’ for the route we took to Source and then the ridge climb. The roundtrip to Source is about 3.5 miles and 700’ of elevation gain. We parked in the upper parking lot at Alpental at Snoqualmie Pass, arriving later than usual at 11:30am. Already about 8 cars in the lot. There was about 6” of fresh snow on the road and we actually needed to put chains on our car to get to the lot after getting stuck halfway up. We could have parked at the lower, first lot and walked, but we had the chains and decided we’d save our energy for the trail proper. Trail starts at the North East corner of the parking lot and is easy to see (no signs). It is a broad snow road and passes a water tower soon along the way. Not too far in (less than 1/2 a mile) the road will turn down a hill steeply and usually (as this time) there is a split in routes. Going down the road/hill will keep you close the creek (North Fork of the Snoqualmie) up to the waterfall area where you’ll climb steeply to gain about 600’ before reaching the top of the waterfall ridge and continuing on. The other route will stay left at the junction and traverse higher along the Western slopes of the valley (underneath Bryant, the Tooth, etc). This is the route we took as the snow was stable and avalanche danger had passed. The exposed slopes are NOT recommended when avalanche condition are present. We passed through a few areas of avalanche debris from the previous cycle. At about 1.75 miles you’ll reach Source Lake. It is nearly all covered in snow and it is so small that it looks like nothing more than a creek poking through the snow cover in a couple places. It’s at the head of the valley and the large snow bowl below Chair Peak will be just beyond it. This is a good turn around point for a good easy snowshoe trip. Weather was good (cold and snowy) for traveling on, so we circled Source Lake and headed up the Eastern side of the snow bowl. It is a steep climb and the snow was wet powder 24” deep. We angled and switchbacked up the slope through the trees and finally attained the ridge at about 4450’ in elevation. From the “snow bowl” approach we traversed across the top of the ridge to the East (right) to the Snow lake overlook, which is just a mound of white. No views as fogs and clouds filled the lake basin. 3 other parties of snowshoers, and 1 group of BC Skiers (12 of them) were met on the trail. Poles and Snowshoes on the trail to Source needed (though if the trail is packed down you could get by without snowshoes. Ice Ax and/or poles and snowshoes on the ridge climb were used. Be sure to check snow/avalanche conditions carefully before climbing past Source Lake to the ridge as there is high potential for avalanche danger here. Photos of hike here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/33346716@N03/sets/72157629114416109/

Decided on a trip up to source lake as the avalanche danger was downgraded to low. We saw no areas that looked potentially dangerous along the way. For the full review please visit our blog: http://triplehhikers.blogspot.com/2011/12/source-lake-snowshoe.html

Open fields of recent avalanche debris on the lower slopes of Snoqualmie Mountain provide a constant reminder that, even on a day of low avalanche risk, the route to Snow Lake requires constant reappraisal. We started from Alpental at 8am on the northeast side of the creek to Source Lake, but soon found ourselves ascending too high too quickly up to a viewing area with a snow-carved double bench that would have provided a picturesque scene of the valley below on a clearer day. The first few chute crossings felt solid, but we were finally turned back at a flume with steep, soft sides. On its far side was an exposed, steep and corniced ledge, and the only other suitable crossing we could see was far below. After backtracking and turning around at another steep, open slope, we finally retraced our steps close to the start of the trail, where we stayed on lower ground and navigated a path around the wide drainages of chutes we had crossed above and through the lower forest where we were greeted by hungry Whiskey Jacks. At the plateau overlooking Source Lake, we saw groups of snowshoers, skiers and snowboarders, many of whom had followed the southwest side of the creek and had been listening to slides on that side of the ridge throughout the morning. We lunched on cucumber, spinach and hummus sandwiches with warm tea for the final northwest push to the divide on the eastern shoulder of Chair Peak and down to Snow Lake. As the afternoon warmed, the more consolidated snow of the morning became a slushy oatmeal. With the vertical slope of the last fifty-foot pitch to the shoulder at Chair Peak's base, the snow began to feel particularly unstable and wet, and new steps would have been precarious and loose. The two climbers who had been to the top ahead of us said the obscured views down were not worth the effort of those last few feet. Since we were at our turn-around time of 2:30pm, since the slopes were warming, and since we were already exhausted from breaking trail (and in my partner's case, post-holing), we turned our backs on Chair Peak. The steps we pounded on the way up provided little support and we easily triggered small, loose, wet slides as we bounded directly down towards the Source Lake basin and the route to Alpental. After a few glissade attempts on steeper sections of the forested lower trail with soft landing zones, and after a quick side trip to a small waterfall off the main creek, we were back at our car a little before 5pm.