Rachel Lake, Alta Mountain — Friday, Jun. 5, 1998

Snoqualmie Region > Snoqualmie Pass

Since the weather was supposed to be mediocre, we headed towards Mt. Alta, which is little further East. The trail was very scenic with waterfalls everywhere (including the trail). Snow occurred in places on the trail but started in earnest about a half mile from the lake. We followed tracks that we thought were leading to the lake but instead lead us up a canyon and over the creek leading from Lila lake to Rachel lake. This worked out fine but I wouldn't recommend it since we ended up crossing over a very full and steep creek. From the lake, I headed up towards the ridge. After traversing right below the ridge a while I spotted a mountain goat near the summit of Alta. I ended up doing a lot of up, down and over as I stuck pretty close to the ridge. This was a mistake. I realized after I had done it that it is much easier to go along the bench until you are close to the base of the peak. You still have to do a little traversing and scrambling but this was much easier than the way I came. Later in the year you can pick up the climbers trail and it is fairly easy. The weather from the top resembled an August day right before the nice days end. The volcanos were clouded over and Stuart had a big scary looking cloud covering the top of it's lighting rod peak. Most of the nearby peaks (Chickamin, Lemah, etc.) were in full view. Coming off of the peak I headed back the easy way I described until I got back to Lila lake. From there I ended up going back the same way I came.