Miles: 7 miles RT
Elevation Gain/Highest: 2427ft/5409ft
Map: Green Trails Snoqualmie Pass No 207, my GAIA or CalTopo
Favorite Eats After Hike: Garlic Crush, Agave Cocina, North Bend Bar & Grill, Chang Thai & Pho, The Commonwealth, Basecamp Books & Bites, or just Pack A Cooler. You can learn more about these places in my Must Hike Must Eat Eating Out Guide.
Find out current conditions and as always, practice Leave No Trace. Pretty please.
My hike:
12/31/2018 Ended my year with a beautiful snowshoe trip up at Snoqualmie Pass with my friend John over at One Hike A Week and his friend Ann. Couldn’t have asked for a better day to take in the Alpine Lakes wilderness and a Avalanche Mountain scramble via Snow Lake. You should definitely check out his post link for some great photos of us.
The avalanche conditions had dropped from considerable to moderate but we started our day early to take advantage of firm snow and a parking spot at Alpental which was sure to fill quickly today. John has done this scramble for the last few New Year’s Eves and his expertise meant we were prepared for conditions with traction devices, snowshoes, snow shovel, beacons and ice axes.
There was a nice trail of compact snow for the first two miles but this is where most of the avalanche risk is. You can see the slope on the right littered with slide debris. We moved quickly and spread out to mitigate our risk.
We turned up at 1.75 miles and 3885ft elevation in and stuck close to the trees as much as we could to avoid open slope but some spots were still firm enough to cross on past tracks. Not so on the way down, most people were turned back just before the pass to the lake and small slides were being triggered.
Once up at the lake we switched from spikes to snowshoes as we went off trail and towards the summit of Avalanche Mountain. The section from the small ponds near Snow Lake up to the ridge was nice and steep, I’ll admit I need to do a bit more leg work for this kind of thing!
Once up on the ridge, the blue skies and white crested peaks were endless and it was just a short jaunt up to the summit on the narrow ridge. There could have been a bit more snow, the last crux was a tad sparse for my taste. Definitely pushed my comfort zone to have such a sharp drop below me.
But the views at the top were all worth it and a Avalanche Mountain scramble via Snow Lake was a great way to end 2018 and hopefully there will be more adventures like this in 2019!
Check out the video for all the details and my waypoints with mileage and elevation!
Directions: Directions: From Exit 52 off I-90, turn left and drive to the ski area parking at Alpental. Arrive early, parking fills up fast on the weekends. Northwest Forest Pass required. I have visited Snow Lake twice before, once on a snowshoe on the summer route to Snow and Gem and once via the Backdoor route via the Middle Fork Snoqualmie.
For more hikes and snowshoes in this area, visit my I-90 Snoqualmie Pass page.
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