We hiked the entire trail in one day, 16 hours (3:40am to 7:22pm). We had excellent conditions on the trail aside from the blistering frigid winds that started whipping us just after sunrise and continued basically until we hit Outpost Camp on our descent. I brought along sandals for water crossings but never needed to use them. Any parts of the trail that were flooded had rocks that were just high enough to use them without getting my feet wet which was amazing. There were parts of the trail that were iced over in the 97 switch backs but again there were ways to carefully get through or around them. The snow field crossing near the summit was definitely scary but we just took the time to plant one foot in front of the other. I would never do this hike without trekking poles, they were so important for sketchy parts of the trail. We hardly brought any water and instead filled up our bottles using a pump filter at Trail Camp and from springs coming out of the rocks at the bottom of the switchbacks. I think this was really helpful to lessen the load we had to carry. We saw a lot of people struggling for different reasons. One guy who was flying at a crazy pace up the mountain had to turn back around at mile 6 after he started throwing up from altitude sickness, another gentleman who was flying up the trail had to come back down after a bad bloody nose, and we saw an entire family of 6 coming down that got stranded up at Trail Camp at night and had to cram into a kind stranger's tent because they tried to summit at night. Please, take your time, be smart, use common sense, and be prepared for the elements. Enjoy this incredible beauty of a mountain!
Last edited by Bonnie; 09/20/17 10:33 PM.