We started our climb at 6:15 AM at the hairpin turn on Washington State Route 2 (at the beginning of the road to the Tunnel Creek trail head).  The road to the Tunnel Creek trailhead is currently closed (and probably will be for some time) due to a monster terrain-altering avalanche that came down this winter.  Large evergreen trees 1-3 feet in diameter are strewn everywhere.  After hiking the road to the TH, we followed the trail and drainage (both buried in snow) to the intersection with the Pacific Crest Trail (Trail 2000) at 4400'.

After reaching the Pacific Crest Trail we headed south until we gained a ridge at 5,200'.  From there we did an up and down traverse staying within 200 feet (+/-) of an elevation of 5,200'.  The snow was very hard in some places. At one point it was necessary to cross a 45 degree slope on very hard snow in the trees to avoid exposure to south-facing slopes that we believed could harbor some avy risk. At 1:30 we reached Trap Pass @ 5,800'.

After an assessment of the time it had taken us to reach Trap Pass, the time remaining to dark, and a realistic assessment of the time it would take to do the rock portion, rappel, and return to the cars at the Tunnel Creek TH (and the risk associated with crossing the previously-mentioned slope again), we decided that a change of plans was in order.  Instead of returning to the cars at the Tunnel Creek TH, we decided that we would return via the Surprise Creek Trail (1060) and walk the 1.5 miles on the road back to the cars.  We headed straight down the slope (Gary ripping up the terrain on skis) from Trapp Pass until we reached the drainage at 3,200 and followed it to the Surprise Creek TH.

In retrospect, I would not recommend doing this climb this early.  Though it was amazing terrain under the deep snowpack, it really made for a long day due the route finding involved and the road closures.  I'd also recommend that all parties beginning at the Tunnel Creek TH leave a car at the Surprise Creek TH as a means of doing a loop and ferrying party members back to the car (regardless of time of year).