Snoqualmie Pass Overnight

Matthew next to the snow shelter

Snoqualmie Pass Overnight

Matthew and Eric

November 18-19, 2017

Matthew flew up for the weekend, and on Saturday morning we started hiking out of Snoqualmie Pass. There was a lot of snow, but luckily the trail was broken for the first few miles. Eventually, however, whoever had broken trail had turned around, and it was up

Hiking around snow lake to the campsite

to us to continue. We took turns slowly making progress, sinking in about a foot with each step. At least 10 other hikers caught up to us, but decided to stay far enough behind that they would never have to be responsible for breaking trail.

Eric chest-deep in powder trying to break trail

We eventually reached a pass and descended to Snow Lake. After traversing around the lake we found a nice spot to camp for the night, and started piling up snow for a snow shelter. A few hikers caught up to us, thinking we were on the trail since we had broken a path right to our snow shelter. We informed them that the trail was farther down the hill, and they were welcome to continue, but without a broken trail they didn’t want to go any farther, and turned around.

We completed the big snow shelter in a few hours, and it was almost tall enough to stand up inside! We also dug out a huge fire pit in the 5-ft-deep snow, and had a roaring fire while we ate dinner.

The next morning we pushed farther into the woods, climbing the southeast summit of Wright Peak by lunchtime. Afterwards we turned back to the snow shelter to pick up our gear, then made it to the trailhead shortly before heavy rain started.

© 2017, egilbert@alum.mit.edu. All rights reserved.