Talapus Lake from exit 45
Ian and I parked on road 9030 a few hundred feet from exit 45. The
road is washed out here. We put on our skis and headed up 9030 to the
Talapus/Olallie Lakes trailhead. We hit another washout shortly after
the intersection with road 9031.
From the trailhead we took the small ridge west of Talapus Creek. The
ridge is treed the whole way, no views. At 3,340' we left the ridge
and headed down gentle slopes to the Talapus Lake outlet. We admired
the snow slopes NW of the lake and resolved to come back in the spring
to ski them.
We returned the same way. The trees on the ridge were a bit too
tight, luckily the ridge is mellow enough that we could usually
maneuver around them (we suffered one collision with a tree). When we
got back to the trailhead we were surprised to find loads of snowshoe
tracks in what had been untracked snow in the morning. We encountered
many snowshoers and a few skiers while we skied down the road.
Elevation gain:
1,815 feet
Trip type:
backcountry ski
In:
South Fork Snoqualmie Drainage, Alpine Lakes Wilderness
Car-to-car:
5 hours 44 minutes
-
1 hour 23 minutes
ascending
from
exit 45 on I-90
to
Talapus Lake trailhead
-
1 hour 25 minutes
ascending
from
Talapus Lake trailhead
to
where we left the ridge
-
25 minutes
ascending
from
where we left the ridge
to
Talapus Lake
-
17 minutes
descending
from
Talapus Lake
to
where we rejoined the ridge
-
41 minutes
descending
from
where we rejoined the ridge
to
Talapus Lake trailhead
-
43 minutes
descending
from
Talapus Lake trailhead
to
exit 45 on I-90
-
49 minutes
driving back
from
exit 45 on I-90
to
65th Street Park and Ride
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