Lake Valhalla Snowshoe

The morning after Christmas a few friends and I drove up to Stevens Pass on a nice winter day. It was around 30 degrees at the pass, cloudy with no precipitation. Although there was a big storm scheduled to arrive in the afternoon, it was quite pleasant in the morning while we were hiking. We parked at the Stevens Pass parking lot with the rest of the skiers and snowboarders, but instead of going to the resort like the rest of the masses we headed on the PCT toward Lake Valhalla.

The trail toward the lake was almost perfect. There was a path already made in the snow like someone had been there a few days before, but it was still soft and not real crusty. It made for great snowshoeing. We continued on the path taking in the great views of valleys and mountains covered in snow. We traversed a couple slopes that could be potential avalanche hazards, but the avalanche conditions weren't high today. We still proceeded with caution, but fortunately nothing of concern happened.

We hiked in a couple miles on the trail and decided to turn back before we reached the lake due to the impeding storm. We didn't want to get stuck in the high winds and downpour of snow. So we made our decision and headed back to the trail head. After we returned to the parking lot we decided to have lunch at the Ski Resort. That ended up taking much longer than we anticipated because one of the restaurants was closed due to not having any running water, so the only remaining open cafe was crowded. But it did give us time to catch up and visit for a while. After lunch we headed home feeling good about a fun and successful snowshoe trip with friends.

Region: Central Cascades, Stevens Pass East
Distance:  4.5 miles
Elevation Gain:  350 ft
Peak Elevation:  4800 ft
Difficulty: Easy
Pass Requirement: None

As always check out all the photos of the hike and every hike by clicking on the "Photos" tab.