To celebrate the new year, Chris, Martin, Jeff and I did a little snowshoe hike up the Surprise Creek valley, along trail 1060, to not quite Surprise Lake, just inside the Alpine Lakes Wilderness .
Deep snow, and no one else on the trail, meant we were more snow-wading than snow-shoeing. A party of four that overtook us when we stopped for lunch gave up soon afterwards. A shame, since it was nice to follow someone else’s tracks for a while.
Obstacles slowed progress considerably, but added to the fun, although not shown is the 5 minutes I spent digging my left foot out from a hole.
(Of course, I blame the heavy pack & weak snowpack structure and claim that excess Christmas eating had nothing to do with it.)
Jeff excelled by finding a fallen tree route across the creek. Nice one!
Crazy Jeff and crazy Chris blasted through their turnaround times and headed back down the trail for some headlamp fun with darkness approaching.
With the forecast for snow and temperature down to –11 Celsius, crazy Martin and crazy Aiddy dug in and camped overnight in a beautiful spot above the creek.
With a view from the tent upwards through snow capped trees to the sky (and amazing stars after dark)…
and across the creek to the snow fields on the opposite side of the valley.
A totally amazing and awe inspiring trip.
Thanks guys!