We arrived at the Marble Mountain parking lot Friday night around 10 after the long drive from Seattle. There was plenty of parking to be had still, but the lot was definitely active. A number of groups were up before daybreak to get an early start. Unfortunately, a few of them were pretty noisy and thought yelling at 4AM was a good idea. Please be considerate of the other hikers around you trying to get some rest in before taking on this hike.

Apart from that, the whole day and experience was great. We left the lot about 6:30AM, and returned around 3:15 or so. In all, it took us 6 hours up, with several breaks, including a longer lunch at the mid mountain weather station.

From the lot, the trail immediately was snow covered. We tramped on the light uphill grade until the trail peeks out of the trees and you get your first view of the mountain around 2 miles in. From here, it's all up and up.

At this point, we strapped on our snowshoes, which we would abandon after lunch. Due to the super slushy snow, the snowshoes didn't have great traction and felt pretty slow. With the bootpack, they're also too wide to fit properly, which becomes awkward on the steeper pitches. Once we abandoned the shoes for microspikes after lunch, we were much happier. Wish we had done it sooner. A lot of people making their way with just boots and trekking poles, however.

Cloud ceiling was a little low, but the view from the summit was pretty spectacular. There were a few people who were closer than I'd want to be to that spring cornice, though. Be careful up there. 

I was jealous of the skiers and boarders who skinned or carried up, but the glissading on the way down was a blast. We took some contractor bags and clipped them around our waists. These things could really pick up some speed in places! Make sure to have a good brake if you do this. A lot of the popular glissade paths became really deep trenches by the end of the day.

All in all, great hike and summit. 

1st timer. Got the parking lot at 5 AM, started hiking 5:15. There were a large number of people starting around that same time. There was snow almost as soon as we started from the trailhead so we put our microspikes on early. Hiked with head lamps for the first 45 mins until the sun rose. The first 2 miles was a hike in the meadows with minimal elevation gain. Above timberline, there was a short section of moderate elevation gain with areas of lava rock requiring a bit of scrambling (some people scrambled the whole way through this section; we scrambled a bit and then got back in the snow when we could). Following this was the nonstop uphill portion. Luckily, many people before us had kicked steps so were able to just follow in those steps. There are 4 false summits - the trek to the 3rd one is the longest and most intimidating, but we just trudged along in the single file line of climbers all striving for the same goal. After you get past the 3rd false summit, there is only a tiny bit more to go and then you're there! We summited at 1 pm after taking many breaks. The view was amazing. We could see Mt Ranier, Adams, Jefferson, and Hood from the top. Coming down, the snow was even softer. Most people glissaded for large portions. My hiking partner didn't want to glissade so we mostly hiked and this was actually more challenging than the ascent in many portions because it was so slippery/slushy and we were post-holing a ton. I was very thankful for my gaiters but envious of all the people on their skis and boards. Got back to the car around 6:30 pm (much later than most because we didn't glissade). A great experience and well worth the hard work. Recommend microspikes or crampons, hiking poles, gaiters, sunscreen, sunglasses, hat/buff. Almost everyone had an ice axe. Many people had snowshoes but most didn't seem to wear them.