The parking lot is clear but there is snow on the trail right away. If everyone in our party had micro spikes and piles we could have done more but we ended up only making 3.6 miles in before having to call it and turn around.
The section of the trail where you drop down under the ridge and climb back up was especially difficult. Our entire group kick stepped across it, we kept going because trying to turn around on that slope wasn’t possible.
It was a beautiful day with stunning views. A couple more weeks for the snow to melt and it’ll be ready!

Drove up to Artist Point on Saturday morning and arrived around 8:15am - plenty of parking available. There's still lots of snow everywhere. The trailhead out to Chain Lakes/Ptarmigan Ridge was totally covered with several feet of snow. Going clockwise we crossed over about 100 feet and then made it to the flat section where the trail had mostly melted out. Already there were beautiful heathers, phlox, and avalanche lilies dotting the hillside. We intentionally kept our hike abbreviated and stopped just at the crest before the Chain Lake trail veers right & down into a large snowfield. The snow was very soft & slushy. My trail running shoes worked just fine but at some points, I definitely wish I had brought my hiking poles too. 

Ptarmigan ridge is still completely snowed over - saw some skiers earning their turns but it looked pretty slow going.

We walked back the way we came and then checked out the Huntoon Point side. Tromped around in the snow like everyone else. The main little reflection pool facing Shuksan was just starting to thaw out. It was a beautiful day all around.

Since the seasonal closure started last week, the hike began at the lower parking lot. I left the parking lot at about 5:40am when the temperature was a pleasant 35F with calm winds. The half moon almost directly overhead lit up the road (which I used both up and down rather than the Wild Goose side trail) to Artist Point so well that I did not use any lights. The first snow of note started around 4500 feet, around the Lake Ann trailhead elevation. It was only about a half inch to an inch all the way to the Lake loop junction. Upon descent into the Ptarmigan realm, snow increased to about 3-4 inches all the way to the Camp Kiser overlook and was perfect for hiking (with poles and traction). Weather started out nice with lots of beautiful light play during sunrise and through all the fogbanks. At around 10:30am, what at first seemed like another fog bank rolled in over Camp Kiser. But, it turned into a light to moderate snow storm which I was in all the way back to Artist Point. The trail from Artist Point to the Lake Loop trail was fairly heavily tracked. The rest of the Ptarmigan route was not broken at all. About two-thirds of the way to my turnaround point was a group of five white Ptarmigans which were sometimes calling loudly with their odd sounds.

Lovely hike on probably the last warm sunny snow-free day up there this year. Pretty busy, parking lot was chaotic, but people thinned out beyond the Chain Lakes Trail turnoff. Incredible views, fall color, pikas and mountain goats.

We ended up doing the ~11.5 mile roundtrip, going beyond the east portal to the dead-end ridges. It seemed pretty lucky to have majority of the trail snow free except for one small snow field relatively easy to cross. This will change as more rain/snow is expected this week.