9 miles of hiking • 4500' elevation gain •
This turned out to be a last-minute thingy.
A good friend of mine and his fiancée signed up for this one a few months ago with their co-workers, but I first heard about it last week. He wanted to know if I could make it, so I tried all week and finally was able to snag a couple of permits on Friday for myself and the girlfriend. Quick tip: if you want to go on a day that's sold out, call the day before and give them your name because people always drop reservations and the MSH folks want your money, badly. That said, there were no rangers out on a busy July weekend checking for permits . . . just saying.
Conditions were almost too perfect: no wind at all, which made the summit very warm. About half of Monitor Ridge has lost snow, which made for some slow-going where the boot path went onto the ash. A lot of people tried to stay on the dirt, but I personally feel that I move more consistently on packed snow, so I sought it out as much as possible.
Glissade tracks are still in great shape, but this might last only another week or two.
