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Avalanche Mountain via Snow Lake trail

Ian and I parked at the Snow Lake trailhead at Alpental and took the trail to the east side of Snow Lake.

After crossing the big creek that runs into the east side of Snow lake, we crossed a short boardwalk, then went right on a bootpath that started a few feet down the trail on the right (two tall trees and an interesting zig-zag tree are next to the bootpath). We followed the bootpath up through beautiful meadowland with many more ponds than the map shows. We ascended the side of ridge (the one that runs south of Avalanche Mountain) to just below the rock bands and traversed below the rock, finally ascending to a small notch (at about 5,000') north of the gendarmes on the lower part of the ridge. The way we descended would have been a better way to get here.

Once on the ridge we followed it up to the summit, sometimes dropping down a bit on the west side of the ridge to avoid rock (if it had been dry the rock may have been fun). The final 20 feet of ascent to the summit was a pretty easy rock scramble.

The summit has a register, only 3 parties have signed it since its first entry in June of 2003, maybe because it is so difficult to open. It was a nice rocky summit with nothing to obstruct the views, but we were pretty socked in by the clouds, so I can only imagine what the views were of.

On the descent we followed the ridge south to the little notch around 5,000' and then descended from there. Once in the basin we made for the highest lake and then followed the creek to the bootpath and back to Snow Lake. This was a much better route.

• Date: 2004/10/21 Trip type: scramble Elevation gain: approx. 3,030 feet Round-trip distance: approx. 8 miles USGS quad: Snoqualmie Pass In areas: Middle Fork Snoqualmie Drainage, Alpine Lakes Wilderness Reference: Avalanche Mountain via Snow Lake Total time on trail including breaks: 7 hours 2 minutes Driving there time: 52 minutes Ascending time (not including breaks): 3 hours 30 minutes Descending time (not including breaks): 3 hours 6 minutes Altitudes below are readings from my altimeter so they are only approximate. 2013/02/20: 20 minutes driving there from Lower Queen Anne to Mercer Island Park and Ride 4 minutes driving there from Mercer Island Park and Ride to intersection of I-90 and I-405 21 minutes driving there from intersection of I-90 and I-405 to North Bend 7 minutes driving there from North Bend to Snow Lake trailhead (Alpental) 59 minutes ascending from Snow Lake trailhead (Alpental) to the pass on trail south of Snow Lake 25 minutes ascending from the pass on trail south of Snow Lake to the intersection of the Snow Lake trail and the boot path 2 hours 6 minutes ascending from the intersection of the Snow Lake trail and the boot path to Avalanche Mountain 1 hour 36 minutes descending from Avalanche Mountain to the intersection of the Snow Lake trail and the boot path 31 minutes descending from the intersection of the Snow Lake trail and the boot path to the pass on trail south of Snow Lake 59 minutes descending from the pass on trail south of Snow Lake to Snow Lake trailhead (Alpental)

• Avalanche Mountain map