Snoqualmie Pass Hiking Unseasonably Difficult

Snow Lake is a cakewalk by Alpine Lakes hiking standards. If you’ve done one hike in the Snoqualmie Pass area, chances are it’s this one. Easy to get to, easy to climb, and it packs a lot of scenery into eight miles of trail making it ideal for both first timers and returning locals looking for some easy beauty. The lingering winter snow pack this year has transformed the usually docile trek into a precarious and at times nerve-racking series of snow fields intermingled with muddy trail. In the past, associating Snow Lake—the Bunny Slope of the Alpine Lakes Wilderness—with danger would take some serious exaggeration, but this year the trail has reinvented itself with a vengeance. As the trail climbs out of the Alpental parking lot, the first batches of snow introduce themselves. Nothing crazy but experienced climbers may be... [read full story]