Getting to the lake is manageable with snowshoes and expertise to navigate the area. There is no marked trail due to snow fall. There was signs of a recent avalanche, probably in the last couple-few weeks. Snow was compact and slightly slushy. Bring poles and warm gear! I took my dog and he did great!

Beautiful day!  We used snowshoes the entire hike, otherwise we were post-holing.  We were able to locate the trail up to about mile 2, then we couldn't pick it up again, walked along the West side of Surprise Creek until we came to open slopes covered in avalanche debris.  After this, the terrain seemed unsafe on both sides, so we turned back.  Definitely coming back in the summer.

With the forecast for a sunny weekend we could not resist getting out on Saturday. Don called me Friday afternoon and by 0600 Saturday morning we were headed up US2 to Scenic for a snowshoe trip to Surprise lake. 

The short road in to the parking had some snow and ice that most vehicles could handle (melting rapidly) but we parked above the RR tracks to avoid getting blocked in by an idle train.  We departed about 0730 and followed a good track for about two miles.  Then, in the open area below the first avalanche slope, the tracks disappeared and the snow became deeper.  There we put on the snowshoes.  We continued up above Surprise creek on the west side since that is the more photogenic and scenic part of this trip;  also it is often used as the Winter route.  There were no more tracks so we used the GPS compass and waypoints to guide us.  We also used "handrails" of the mountains on the right and the creek to our left.  As we got within about a thousand feet from the lake the route became steeper and the snow, deeper.  The snowshoes sank in about 18 inches making it very exhausting to continue.  We took more rest-steps and breaks to catch our breath while ascending.  It was extremely tiring but the surprise was - we made it!

We saw no one else but did see boot tracks going in and back down, about two miles in.  Recommend having good water-proof boots, snowshoes, poles, for this trip.  Also traction devices for the lower portion might be useful if not putting on the snowshoes when departing the trailhead.  Need to be in good physical condition for the powdery snow and allow about 8 hours up and back.  Be mindful of the avalanche conditions before going as this route does traverse through the bottom of four steep, open slopes.  

With the sunshine and low avalanche danger, we decided to head up to Surprise Lake. We arrived at the parking area near the power lines around 10 am with a few cars in the lot. The lot had a few patches of snow and shallow ice, but you could get pretty much any car up there easily. You couldn't drive all the way up to the trailhead under the power lines due to substantial snow and ice on the road, but it was an easy and short walk.

Based on looking at the snowpack and the NWAC report, we decided to leave the snowshoes in the car because we thought the snow would be quite consolidated. It was a good decision. With the blue skies and hard snow, it felt like spring!

The first part of the trail was very hard-packed snow. It was a bit awkward walking up the wooden steps since parts of them were completely snow covered and some of then had a narrow, tall ridge of snow just large enough to get in your way. The stream crossings were relatively straightforward, but you had to be a bit careful climbing down the small snowbanks to get to them.

Eventually, we ended up on a completely snow-covered trail. The snow was again quite hard and crusty with a bit of give to it. We didn't see the summer creek crossing at all. We were scoping out a place to ford the creek when a helpful backpacker mentioned that there was a really good crossing up the way.

We instead followed the subtle bootpath and stayed on the right of the creek until we entered the exposed slopes of the valley with numerous avalanche chutes. There was a ton of hard avalanche debris over the area, but it looked quite old. There was sufficient hard snow to get over the talus field easily.

We were looking at a variety of sketchy crossings, but we decided to keep on hiking upstream to see if a good one arose. Eventually, we reached the crossing the backpacker had mentioned. It was a very large downed tree with a snow bridge overlying it with a width of maybe 4-5 feet. There was a clear footpath over it. It was very easy to cross.

Once over the creek, the path diverged into a mishmash of boot and snowshoe prints. We intermittently followed them and made our own way. At the area where the switchbacks for the summer should have been, there was no trail. Some brave soul had kicked steps straight up the ridge.

We followed up in those steps, occasionally having to kick our own. The route was steep, probably 30-40 degrees. The snow was incredibly hard and crusty and sometimes so hard that you couldn't kick steps into it. We pulled ourselves up with the trekking poles which didn't get too much purchase in the snow. It was manageable and felt reasonably safe, but a slip and tumble would have been very bad. An ice axe could have been handy if only to get better purchase on the snow.

Eventually the trail flattened out and there was a clear path to the lake. The lake was completely frozen over. It was sunny, with beautiful views.

We then made our way down. We decided to don microspikes because of how icy it was coming up. We made it to where the top of the switchbacks should have been hoping to find an easier route than we ascended, but there was none. We decided to do out best route-finding by traversing across the mellowest slopes all the way down.

That did not go as planned. No matter how we tried, the mellow slopes all eventually terminated in steep slopes. We ended up descending very carefully nose-over-toes on our spikes to descend these steeper slopes. We sometimes had to traverse across steep slopes that were too hard to kick steps into, making us edge in with our boots. Plunge stepping was treacherous. Some parts of the snow were soft enough and some were not. We went slowly and carefully and managed to get down without incident. You didn't really *need* one, but an ice axe would have been very helpful for those parts. It's possibly we just missed where the easy descent was.

Once we got lower, the snow softened up, and we plunge stepped down into the valley with an easy hike back to the car.

We set off on this trail after seeing that the NWAC forecast for this region was for low avalanche risk. Starting from the large overhanging power lines was hard packed snow. At this point we threw on our spikes and headed onwards.

A mile in where you normally cross a log to get across a river we decided for safety sake to keep going on the western bank of the river. Knowing this we bushwhacked along and experienced at least three different types of snow; Hard packed almost ice like stuff, Slushy stuff on top of a hard crust, and powder. Before setting off on this endeavor we checked our maps and I double checked on my GAIA topo map that sticking to the western bank would safely get us to the lake. Once we set off we were determined to make it up, after our first quarter mile of bushwhacking we quickly realized this is a trail that should only be done when avalanche risk is low. The river along the valley is the stop point for most of the avalanches and could easily kill; this is one of the many deadly terrain traps.

We finally got to the last 3000 feet before the lake, at this point we had to gain about 800 feet. We chose a steep but safe route up that hugged the river.

Once at the top the lake was spectacular, the silence was incredible as well!

Strangely enough, the lake’s outlet was the only part that was not frozen, surrounding the lake there is a solid 6-8 feet of snow.

On the way down, I would say cramp-ons would be your best bet, even lightly post holing would be great. The hike is STEEP, poles would be handy too. You may get by with microspikes, but I would recommend an ice axe on this trail at this time.