I was, unfortunately, unable to summit yesterday. For my first time I was happy with what I was able to accomplish. The reports that I heard from people coming down the mountain is that the mountaineer's route up from trail camp is about 1-2 hours faster, even though it is a bit steeper most people had better success with that. 2 dozen people were on the summit at one point in time on Saturday 10/10.
Right around mirror lake is where we hit the first on trail snow/ice. After that it was on and off sections of snow and dirt, only a few slippy parts. Trail camp had 6"-12" of snow, but again the pathway is packed down and blazed quite well. My buddy and I took the switchbacks route. After a couple hours in the sun the conditions got real sloppy, temps in the 50s. The trail is blazed 1-2' wide going up, but yes on the upside of the trail the snow is 3' deep, but you're walking in 3' deep snow. At most there are footprints 6"+ deep in the snow if you the footprints. Bring some spikes, a set of poles, and take your time going up. If at all possible start your ascent from trail camp when the snow is still crunchy to allow your spikes to dig in and give you a good grip. My buddy and I hit our drop dead time and turned back within a mile of trail crest because we didn't want to come back down in all that crap after dark, if we pushed though to the summit. On the way down all the snow below the meadows was now melted which made things a bit wet and some of the rocks were a little slick. Lots of people, including myself, were able to wear trail runners and microspikes. I was able to hold off until the cables before throwing on the spikes. Overall it is very doable if you can summit with the snow and ice still crunchy. Trail camp is the last spot to get water, but more than half of the lake had a thin frozen surface, no issue though.
Overall did 15.5 miles or so, made it above 13,000 feet.
