Surprise and Glacier Lakes, Surprise Lake Snowshoe — Sunday, Mar. 25, 2007

Central Cascades > Stevens Pass - West

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.