Total Distance: 6.1 miles
Elevation Gain: 2644 ft.
Min: 3207ft. Max: 4509 ft.
Time: 9:00 am - 1:15 pm
Weather: Cold, foggy, overcast. One glorious sun break!
A great snowshoe trip again today. I love that I get to start another blog entry with that last sentence. There is a lot to say about this trip so let's get going...
First, I went out dancing with a friend and his roommate. He lives up near Seattle, so I spent the night at his place, and I joined him on a snow shoe trip he had planned with his buddy. So the three of us set out for Alpental at exit 52 on I-90. This was such an easy drive from Seattle, so from Tacoma it would not be bad either. I will be doing some more hikes in this area soon. I guess one reason I have avoided this area is the fact that I have no avalanche training. The conditions today were perfect for snowshoeing, I had been checking www.nwac.us and www.noaa.gov religiously this week, hoping for safe conditions.
The second thing I want to say about this hike is I finally used my phone gps tracking app perfectly. The first time I used it was for a hike that I did not blog about that was on Saturday Jan. 2. The next week on the hike at Hurricane Ridge the white-out snow conditions did not allow me to get a decent signal. The next week was the MTTA - High Hut school trip, I did not remember my phone. I left it in the car. And last week, I forgot to turn it off until 15 minutes after I got in the car and drove about 6 miles. This week it was perfect and you can see the track here.
The hike started easy enough on a snowed over road, but the wide lane aburptly changed to a trail wide path through the trees along the South Fork of the Snoqualmie River. In what seemed like no time at all, we were at Source Lake, right below the saddle between Chair Peak and Snoqualmie Mountain. Now according to my new snowshoeing book, this trail is realtively busy in the summer, but "come winter, only a few hardy folks make the long slog through deep snow to the glorious lake basin." Now if this is referring to the slog down the saddle to Snow Lake, they were correct. But at Source Lake and up on the saddle it was like a day in the park. There were tons of people around. Including an avalanche training course which put my mind at ease, knowing trained professionals were around.
The hike up to the saddle was tough. The slope was steep, and the snow was slick in parts. It was easy for my downhill shoe to slide a bit. I fell twice but did not slide down far at all. We made it up to the saddle and the clouds and fog in the valley and around Chair Peak suddenly began to dissipate. The sun came out, and the beauty of Chair Peak covered in snow fell upon our eyes. It really is indescribable. We walked in the saddle and while it was still clear, we caught a glimpse of Snow Lake in the basin below. It was covered in snow and appeared frozen over. This was confirmed only minutes later when we saw a group of cross-country skiers moving across the lake.
We also wanted to walk on the lake, so we set out down the other side of the saddle. Except for the first few minutes, we got to make our own way mostly through untouched snow as we went down to Snow Lake. I started sliding down and using my poles to steer. This was so much fun. As I went down I would accumulate snow in front of me and get about 10 feet of snow infront of me moving. We were on the lake, literally, at 11:15 am. We walked out a ways and had a snack.
The walk back up was the hardest part of the day. I enjoyed the walk up, but I was definitely working. When I\we got back up to the top, we were back in the crowd. When I started my hikes, I remember being annoyed by the crowds, but now I like to see people in the backcountry. As one of my good hiking buddies has said, "it is good for humanity to have more people experiencing the natural world." I couldn't agree more. As we were walking along the saddle, visibility had dropped to almost nothing. You could not see more than 30 to 40 feet in front of you. The walk back down to Source Lake was also a lot tougher on the way down. The snow was moving a lot, and it was easy to slide and slip down. There were even more people moving up, and with limited visibility I could not see them. So, Unfortunately, I could not choose to slide down this slope like I did to Snow Lake.
We got down soon enough though and continued walking on through the trail. We did miss a turn and found ourselves seeing a waterfall we had missed on the way in because we were off trail now. We walked up through the fresh snow and made it back to the trail. It was a great day.
Orchid: The sun break in the saddle.
Onion: Forgeting my camera. (My buddy had is and he let me carry it)
Picture:
Google Map
Total Distance: Approximately 8 miles
Elevation Gain: Approximately 2000 ft.
Time: 10:00 am - 4:00 pm
Weather: A cool but spectacularly sunny day.
A great snowshoe trip again today. Three friends from work joined me as I went up to Paradise in Mount Rainier National Park. This was my first visit to the park in the winter, and I know it will definitely not be my last.
We parked at Narda Falls, just below the Paradise Visitor's Center. We then snowshoed up the most ridiculous hill. It was crazy steep. There is no way we could have done this except for the snow conditions today. The snow was crunchy and icy. This early it was especially rigid and the gripping teeth in the snowshoes made it like I was locked into the side of the hill. It was a short, but tough climb to a nice wide snowed over road leading straight to Reflection Lake. This was the main destination of my trip. We were at the lake by 11:00 am, and decided we had a lot of time so we were going to take the long way back. Right at Reflection Lake there was a trail to Paradise going along the Mazama Ridge.
The views of Mount Rainier, the Tatoosh Mountains, surrounding peaks, and the river valleys below were breath taking. The walk was long. The snow overall was easy to walk on, but as the day went on and the snow got warmer, it did become a bit tough in places.
It was a great day with good friends and glorious weather. No better way to spend a Saturday.
Orchid: Rainier is so beautiful.
Onion: Right ankle is in BAD shape.
Picture:
Google Map
Total Distance: 7.8 miles
Elevation Gain: 2000 ft.
Time: 10:30 am - 3:00 pm
Weather: Cool, overcast, and rainy day.
Today's hike was a great snowshoe walk up to the High Hut in the Mount Tahoma Trails System. I was here two weeks ago for two reasons: 1) for fun, 2) to scout the route for this snowshoe trip.
This was another hike with the Outdoor Club I have been helping start at work. This was a special hike for the club. We had 15 students, 6 teachers (including me), a parent, and a dog. It was by far the biggest hike in terms of preparation, amount of gear needed, and participation. Another reason this hike was so great was the fact that it has been raining all week, and today was no exception. It was also warming up, so the snow level was at 8000 ft. today, and avalanche danger was high just about everywhere. There were so many places we could have just canceled, but we didn't.
We met at 7:45 this morning and hit the road. By 9:40 we were in Ashford, and we got to chat with the great people at Whittaker Mountaineering. We made sure there was no threat of an avalanche, and then we bombed it out to the trailhead.
It was a great hike up. The rain and warmer temps made the snow compact and icy. The snowshoes were necessary to grip and there were some areas that you would have sunk down into without them, but the work of snowshoeing was not as rigorous as it could have been. Although, more rigorous snowshoeing means better snow. You take what mother nature gives you.
We made it to the hut by 12:30 pm, and we spent the next hour sitting by a propane fueled gas stove, making and drinking hot chocolate, drying out, eating lunch, laughing, and enjoying being 22 deep in the High Hut.
Left at 2:02 pm and was at the car by 3:08 pm. Great day!
Orchid: The snowball fight on the way down.
Onion: Rainy weather.
Picture:
Total Distance: 6 miles
Elevation Gain: 800 ft.
Time: 11:00 am - 3:30 pm
Weather: Cold, chilly day. Snow off and on in the morning, finally clearing out a little by mid-afternoon.
Second weekend in a row I was out snowshoeing. I went out a week ago on Sunday, but when I got home to blog about it I was sick. I spent all night praying to the porcelain god, and thought I would go ahead and let my Denver hike be the 18th week and I could let my trip up to the MTTA-High Hut be just for me.
But this hike to Hurricane Hill was the hike I wanted to do last Sunday. It was the first snowshoe hike described in my new Snowshoe Routes book. I got up early this morning, went an picked up a friend, hit the store, filled up with gas, and was on the road by 7:30 am. We were in Port Angeles by 9:45 am and had driven through lots of weather, including snow. Checked in at the Visitor's Center and the road was open and we went for it. Got to the park entrance and chained-up. The car did great with chains, but the driving up the Hurricane Ridge Road was tough. We were driving basically in white-out conditions.
Finally got up to Hurricane Ridge Visitor's Center, and all the stress and worries of the day melted away. Strange considering it was so cold nothing else was melting. My friend and I signed in with rangers and set off for the top of the hill about 3 miles away. It was great fun. It was better visibility on the road walking the 1.3 miles to the Hurricane Hill trailhead.
The hike from here was steep and pretty intense. We started climbing up, and I had a tough go for about 45 minutes. We found ourselves moving up and over hills, and the we started trailing t the left, carving out a path on the slope. After sliding a bit too much for the steepness of the slope, we climbed back up on to the ridge. Up among the trees, the walking got a lot easier. When we came out into the open, we began a monster walk up the slope to the top Hurricane hill. It was like straight out of some crazy climbing movie. My friend had bombed it out there, allowing me to follow his tracks, but I could not see him in front of me.
We got to the top and had a hot cup of tea and a snack. I warmed up my beard and cleaned off the ice. It was a good walk up, despite being able to only see my immediate surroundings. The Olympics are always beautiful, but the majesty of Olympus and the other peaks were hidden from my view today. I will be back up this hill again before the end of the season. Next time, I will try to plan so weather will be clear.
On the way down, I hit a bit of a skid, and my snowshoe was compromised. Thankfully, I had some duct tape, and we were able to fix it, at least for the walk out. The walk out was tough on my ankles and my feet. As we got back to the road, the skies were beginning to clear. It was a fantastic day.
Orchid: Walking out on the road to start the hike. I don't know why, but I felt great at that moment.
Onion: Broken snowshoe.
Picture:
Google Map
