It came as no surprise that the trail to Surprise Lake would be full of snow. It is a north facing valley where one of the last big snowstorms of winter hit. The good part is that the trailhead is very close to the highway. Access is via the railroad maintenance yard just 10 miles east of Skykomish on the south side. Go over the tracks and find parking about 100 yards down the rocky road. Continue on foot west along the road to the trailhead. The trail goes up under the powerlines and then gently into the valley with the river on your left pretty much all the way to the waterfalls. The snow was still about 2 to 4 feet deep but was melting fast. This is a dangerous time for hiking because gushing runoff from the slopes is undercutting snow everywhere and the packed sections of the trail are little more than 2'high ridgelines down the center of the puncheons. My friend, Jon, and I made leisurely progress through the beautiful woods and crossed several avalanche slopes whose boulders poked out underneath their white blankets. We followed snowshoe tracks up the west side because the trail was totally buried. Finally near the falls we discovered a crossing and started up the steep slope to the bowl which holds Surprise Lake. This was stiff going, made all the more difficult because those whose tracks we we were following rudely demolished those very tracks by glissading over them. They turned a precipitous stair step into an icy trough. It required an ice axe to navigate up this hazard or posthole our way up either side. Having left my ice axe behind, I hacked out toe holds with my ski poles to advance. Fianlly Jon hauled out his 12th essential - common sense - and announced that this was beyond his comfort zone. So we turned back and snow shoed our way out. Left the trailhead at 9:10, reached our high point at 1:15, and were back at the car by 4:00. I broke one of my Yax trax and lost a water bottle, and spoke a few phrases in German about inconsiderate glissaders, but it was nevertheless a splendid adventure. The hazelnut grande americano at Espresso Chalet outside of Index was well earned and hit the spot.

A Mountaineers winter scramble of Surprise Mtn. It's an ambitious winter trip at 13 or 14 miles and 4100' of gain. We knew we'd need an early start, good snow and decent avy conditions to make it. Unfortunately, we only got the early start. Avy forecast wasn't good, meaning that we weren't going to chance climbing above Glacier Lake to Surprise Gap. But we could still have a nice snowshoe trip up to Glacier Lake and that's what we set out to do as we parked across the railroad tracks on the S side Hwy 2 near Scenic. We had the honor of breaking fresh trail from the parking area all the way to the lakes. The snow was the very definition of cascade concrete. Wet, heavy, sticky, cling to your boots and snowshoes type snow. A real workout even with 6 of us trading the lead. We stayed on the W side of Surprise Creek the entire trip. Never crossing to the E side where the summer trail does. All of the little streams you find on the lower part of the trail were easily crossed as the snow bridges are all quite deep and strong. Snow depth looked to be 5 feet at least and more like 8 feet in the open spots up near Glacier Lake. The trees held lots of snow as we started out in the morning, but the positively balmy temps we got by early afternoon loosened things up a bit and had us looking warily (and wetly) up into the dripping branches. The normally benign patriarchs of the old growth forest became menacing snow bomb targeting and delivery platforms as they sent big and I do mean big chunks of hard snow plopping down around us. One in the group took a direct hit and was knocked off her feet. No fun and worse yet, there's no way to get even. The weather was warmer than you'd expect, but the sun never burned completely through the clouds. An enjoyable trip, with lots of exercise and a great group of people.

road not plowed to trailhead, must walk about 400yd from parking spot. wet snow all the way, snowshoes and poles useful. some narrow bridge/log crossings and steep banks when crossing rivulets. a couple avalanche gullies to cross. gorgeous fresh snow.

Started on trail sat morning, Mission: overnighter with intentions of skiing some crazy lines into glacier lake or Surprise lake. We opted for snow cave sleeping quarters above Glacier Lake and by the time we were settled in and full it was dark. We awoke sunday morning and hiked above Glacier lake up Thunder Mountain to ski a chute into the drainage area we received about 4"" of new snow overnight and it was warming up fast not the best conditions but we made do, skied a fun line headed back to camp and headed out. The trail was in good shape and easy to follow due to lack of new snow, except for the recent warming had made the creek crossings that had bridges a little narrower. Over night in the winter wilderness is always a blast especially when you return to a heater.

A little tough to find the trail head access road. Go past the large pull out on the right hand side of the road at Scenic, then right turn onto road where the snowplows get their sand. Park either before or past the railroad tracks. Nice snow at the start, 24"". Packed down a nice wide trail with snowshoes up to about 3200'. 5' or 6' of snow there. A few tricky stream crossings on narrow logs here and there.