Surprise and Glacier Lakes, Surprise Lake Snowshoe — Monday, Dec. 23, 2013

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

We (me and my dog) did a nice snowshoe to Surprise Gap today. I was hoping for views of the Glacier Peak, but there were some very persistent clouds in the Stevens Pass area that blocked all views. The valley of the Surprise Creek itself was clear though, so still some great views! The snow conditions where very good, so very enjoyable overall. Some notes on the conditions: - Parked at the railroad - I started using snowshoes after the log crossing. Before that, snow does not always cover the entire trail. - The trail is very nicely packed until the switchbacks. The switchbacks themselves had fresh snow that obscured the trail a bit. Fortunately, two friendly skiers left from the parking area at roughly the same time and they were kind enough to break trail on the switchbacks. The skiers were the only people I met during the day. From the tracks I saw on the way back, it looked like they went in the direction of Trap Pass. - After Surprise Lake, there were no indications that other people have been in the area. Breaking trail was not too bad though: under the trees there is a solid crust, and in the open area there is ~0.5-1 foot of powder snow on top of a very solid crust. Overall quite pleasant. - The Surprise Gap area had a couple of small avalanches (see photos), but there is not a ton of snow, so it didn't seem dangerous to me. It's pretty steep to get up there, so I left a nice trail of switchbacks. I left the trailhead (with my brave dog) at 7:30am. I was at Surprise Lake at 10:30am, and at Surprise at 1pm. Back at the car at 4pm. More photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bravenboer/sets/72157638997454865/