Mileage and elevation is one way. There are other routes with less mileage and elevation gain such as via War Creek, but I have no idea about the conditions. We went up from Stehekin via Purple Pass. It's a hard trip with a backpack, but I'd hate to do as a day trip. The downhill was the toughest. We stayed near Juanita Lake. We had a lot of snow still so water was plentiful but too much snow to hike much of Summit Trail. View from site is amazing - great place to camp at site if melted out.