Surprise and Glacier Lakes, Surprise Lake Snowshoe — Friday, Feb. 20, 2004

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

The snowshoe trek to Surprise was awesome and sucessful. Don't even try this without preparation and compass skills. Trail up to 3000' is hard packed and beyond is steep and deep. Numerous snow bridges to cross. Defiantly Backcountry and Rewarding. Though if we took the club I’d swear they would have mutinied or kicked us out of the club. 3 hrs up and 2 back with an hour for lunch. Elevation started at 2300’ and high point of 4500’ at the lake 4 miles one way. Trail was straight up for the last .5 mile in 10’ of snow. Luckily, one other insane trekker knew the way so we followed his trail- or we would never in a million years have found this place without Orienting skills. Still one of the most beautiful places we’d ever gone too- do it on a sunny day. The doggie is still recovering as are his parents.