7 miles of hiking • 2500' elevation gain • 1 night
Hiked into what we knew was going to be a soggy Mother's Day. The mountain had record permit numbers on beautiful Saturday - 649 climbers!! The parking lot was a craziness of cars and costumes and parties when we arrived in the evening. It was so balmy all evening and night that the snow was still slushy when we set off at 4am. Wore microspikes in some parts, but trail also had lots of exposed rock and dirt throughout. At 5000' and 7am, the wind and rain picked up and we decided there wasn't much need to keep going through the misery of it all. Got out my Magic Carpet and had a great, if short, roller coaster of a glissade down!
Last year was extremely warm and with high avalanche danger as well. Love the Mother's Day extravaganza and will continue to go each year, but will hold out for the actual climb several weeks earlier when snow and weather is better. I was up there just three weeks ago and conditions were PERFECT, but didn't get an early enough start to summit. Dag!
