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.

AIARE 1 Course

So I spent the weekend with the Mountaineers up at Mt. Baker for an AIARE 1 (Avalanche Education) course. The weather was cloudy, about 34 degrees and snowed lightly off and on. Visibility was very limited and the amount of snow on the mountain was unseasonably low. But there was enough to demonstrate the concepts of reading terrain, traveling safely, beacon searches, avalanche hazards and making observations including looking at different layers in the snow pack.

We had tons of fun with our group. We all had snowshoes, except our two instructors who were on back-country skis. That was good to learn how to travel with skiers, since they often can't travel the same paths as snowshoers. We got to plan our own destination and figure out how we would travel avoiding specific avalanche hazards and choosing terrain wisely and route finding in near white-out conditions.

In the end, I learned a lot about avalanche dangers, how to spot avalanche conditions, how to trip plan effectively, how to travel in safe terrain and how to respond in an emergency situation. I had a lot of fun and got to meet some great people. The only thing I could have hoped for was better weather and snow conditions. But you can't control that.

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

Lake 22

This weekend I was finally able to get out and enjoy the wilderness again, it had been far too long. A buddy and I headed out toward Granite Falls early Saturday morning. We got to the Lake 22 trail head around 7:30 to an empty parking lot. A car pulled in right behind us as we were getting our gear together. I was surprised to find a complete absence of any snow all the way up to the trail head. We decided to leave the snowshoes at the car, because we didn't think we'd need them.

So we headed up the trail, we found the trail completely snow free until about 1 mile from the top. As we hit the snow and starting trucking through the snow along the rocks we found it very advantageous to have our trekking poles with us. It did get pretty slick walking on those slippery rocks. Once we did get to the top we found quite a bit of snow, and once we stopped moving it got fairly cold rather quickly.

We took a few pictures, drank some hot chocolate, walked around the Lake as far as we dared, even blazed a few feet of new trail in the snow. We turned back and headed back down. We passed a few people on their way up (who I thought were very ill prepared to be out in the cold/snow...). We made it down in good time and were able to be home by early afternoon.

 

Region: North Cascades-Mountain Loop Highway
Distance: 2.9 miles
Elevation Gain: 1350 ft
Peak Elevation: 2400 ft
Difficulty: easy (slightly more difficult due to some snow at the top)
Pass Requirement: Yes. All passes honored.
Water Source: Lots of creeks and streams due to the snow-pack. Lake 22 2.9 miles (iced over, covered in snow.)
Wildlife: Very limited due to the cold weather and time of year.

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