[dacker]

Team: Carol (silly_traveler), Taehee (Dacker's spousal unit) and Rick (Dacker) Stats: RT mileage ~10 miles; elevation gain ~2800 ft. Carol and Taehee have been hearing about each other for a couple of months now, but every time they had plans to get out together something interfered. Today they finally found out they were real people and not just legends. The weather forecast for the day had gone from good to bad to abysmal within a day, then bounced back to marginal, so we decided to go for it. And it is good that we did. The marginal day that was forecast turned out to be really nice: mild and almost sunny, without a hint of precipitation. We arrived at the trailhead for the Surprise Creek trail a little before 9:00 to find the parking lot a sheet of very slippery ice, so we started out wearing crampons. Although we soon realized we would not need them on the trail, we left them on until enough post holes convinced us we needed to switch to snowshoes, which we did, and they were left on for the rest of the hike. For the first couple miles, the trail ascends through a lovely old-growth forest, then breaks out into the open to cross the bottoms of several avalanche slopes, all of which were littered with debris from big slides that came down during the period of high avy activity about 3 weeks ago. Most of the slides had stopped just short of the trail. Today there was no new snow, the old snow was well-consolidated, and the avy threat was just about totally absent. But from what we saw, it is no place to be during periods of high activity. We broke out our ice axes for the exposed and strenuous climb up the headwall of the valley to the lake basin. Soon we came to Surprise Lake, where we met a couple guys hauling snowboards. Where they planned to ride up there, given that all the open slopes were covered with big chunks of avy debris, we had no idea. They planned to camp at Glacier Lake. After ascending a ridge leading to the upper lake basin and Glacier Lake, we got a rude surprise. The temperature had been mild and comfortable all day, but coming down from Surprise Gap and blowing across the open space of the lake was an artic blast of epic proportions. This puppy was COLD!! So we huddled in the shelter of some big trees to eat our lunch rather than shiver in the bitter wind out on the lake shore. We sure didn’t envy those guys planning to camp there! The hike back out went quickly and without any incidents, even when we jumped a broken snow bridge in our snowshoes on one of the creek crossings. We stopped in Sultan for some very good hot chocolate at a place called (I think?) Vacaccio’s. (edit: OK, Vinaccio's!) On a day that was forecast to be a washout, this was a real gift. OK, I know you would rather look at the pictures, so I’ll shut up and get to some of mine. Carol will post hers shortly. Cast of Characters:

Carol and Taehee

Rick

On the Trail:

Old growth forest on the lower trail

Everyone probably takes this shot!

Creek crossing

One of many, many old avalanches

Thunder Mountain

Nearing Surprise Lake

Surprise Lake

Approaching Glacier Lake with Surprise Mountain

Glacier Lake from our sheltered lunchroom

Descending the headwall

View down-valley from the headwall

Bottom of the headwall

A couple interesting snow carvings, courtesy of Surprise Creek:

[silly_traveler]

I got the idea of Surprise/Glacier from dicey's report from a couple of weeks ago. And it was a great snowshoe Thanks for writing the TR dicey Nice TR Dacker It was a great trip I finally met Taehee, and she's awesome Glacier Lake is pretty in the winter time The rock wall behind the lake is beautiful with all the snow patches all over it Now I want to get up to Surprise Mountain in the summer and look down on the lake, must be really nice It's Vinaccio's Coffee (I think). Trail Pair introduced me to that place a month ago and I've been doing business with them ever since They sure got some yummie gourmet hot chocolate

bumps

avy debris

view along the way

surprise lake

almost glacier lake

glacier lake

glacier lake

jake at glacier

dacker and taehee at surprise lake

there was sun!

more bumps

[Grizzy]

Great TR guys! I REALLY Love those photo's, especially of Surprise Creek and the way it cuts through the snow....I always enjoy seeing creeks do that...

[Allison]

Nice TR. I helped to get Silly hooked up with a set of snowshoes this winter, and I'm glad to see they are getting a workout. Almost makes me want to get out there and 'shoe on my own. Almost.....

[the Zachster]

Great report That's must be an awesome trip in winter. We usually go in the spring when the lakes are still snowed in and the meandering creek carves up the landscape so beautifully. I'm getting antsy for spring (but we need so more snow first !

[dicey]