Started the Hike late from Bear Lake. We quickly realized that we had a lot of snow on the trail to contend with. Putting snow shoes on and taking them off again over and over would be far to difficult. So we just attempted to power though. With this being our first major trip of the year we quickly determined we had far to much weight in the packs. And we were not in shape for the conditions. We also heard from a number of people that there was a large snow field blocking the trail. However, we kept trying. At about two thirds of the way to Fern Lake one of the stays in my pack that also retains my waist strap came loose and no matter what I tried to correct the issue I could not get my strap to work. At that point we threw up our hands and proclaimed it was a great hike and it was time to return to Bear Lake.