Paragliding to Snow Lake

Snow lake, an extremely popular hike in the summer, is surrounded by some of the most impressive and easily accessed backcountry skiing terrain in the winter. With the trailhead at the Alpental ski resort only a 40 minute drive from my house, I've spent many winter weekends exploring the area on skis with friends.

Ski touring in the Alpental Backcountry, November 2017

On Sunday January 27th the weather was looking very nice for paragliding in the mountains. Just the day before I had flown off Saint Helens (see my last post for details), so I slept in and had a relaxed morning. The skiing conditions were still quite poor, with no new snow and a lot of icy slopes. After checking the weather and seeing that it was sunny with light north winds at Snoqualmie pass, I knew I would regret it if I didn't get up there and fly off something. As my climbing and skiing friends often say, you gotta go for the "full value weekend". 

The slopes to the south of Snow lake are mostly free of trees and have interesting rolling features, but terminate in huge 400 foot cliffs that drop directly to the lake. The past few years while skiing in the area I always thought it would be epic to ski down the slope and just fly off those cliffs with a paraglider to gracefully land on the frozen lake below. With my new paraglider, good weather, and stoke at an all-time high it seemed like this was the time to make that happen. 

The beautiful views above Snow Lake
(April 2nd, 2018)

The cliffs south of Snow lake with Chair peak beyond (note the skiers for scale)
(December 9th, 2017)

After eating brunch and packing up all my gear, I was on the road before noon and got to the trailhead around 12:30. The ski resort was super packed and at first I was concerned about finding a parking spot. I don't think I've ever seen so many people parked in the Alpental north lot (although I'm normally skiing by 8 or 9am and back around sunset). I found a spot without issue and quickly began the ski towards Source lake. I felt surprisingly good despite climbing Saint Helens the day before -- all those hike & fly laps up Tiger Mountain have been paying off with increased fitness. 

I wouldn't normally ski the Alpental backcountry without partners or avalanche gear, but the avy danger was low on most terrain and I was extremely familiar with the route, so I decided to forgo the avalanche equipment. In hindsight I really should have brought just my beacon as it's light and worth bringing even in low danger. 

The ski was nice and it felt good to be in the sun above the low clouds that were immersing Seattle. As I approached the basin below Chair Peak (seen in the 1st photo), I felt winds coming up the slope and was thinking about changing plans to launch from higher up in the basin and flying over a shallow section of the ridge to get down to Snow Lake. However, as I went further up the basin and into the shade I felt catabatic winds coming down the slope and decided it would be a bad idea. Sticking with my original plan I went back down the basin slightly and booted a steep section to the ridge south of Snow Lake to top out at 2:20. See my full gps track here.

The winds were from the north, but a bit stronger than I had expected on top of the ridge at maybe 10 or 15 mph. I pulled out my wing and began to setup for launch, but was sketched out thinking that my wing could easily get blown over the other side of the ridge. I decided to move a bit further east where there was a shallow depression to shelter my glider from the wind as I unfolded it. The winds and steep slope necessitated a reverse launch, and since it was icy I decided to leave the skins on my skis so I wouldn't easily slide backwards during the launch. After giving the A-lines a couple good yanks the leading edge caught the wind and my wing inflated well. It wasn't the most beautiful reverse launch ever, but I felt good enough about it to turn around and quickly ski/fly off the steep slope. Here is the full video of my flight:

Full paragliding flight down to Snow Lake

I had hoped to get some lift to soar the ridge, but dropped away and quickly bailed on trying to gain the ridge again. The flight went really well, and it was cool to fly next to those huge cliffs I had spent so many days looking at previously. Click here for the full GPS flight track. After a smooth landing I packed the wing up, skinned back up 500 feet to the exit from Snow lake, and survival-skied 3 miles out to the Alpental parking lot on icy south facing slopes.