Quick report for an overnight at Crater Lakes and climb of Raven Ridge.
The road was in good shape to the trailhead, and passable for regular cars. There was an outhouse we didn't investigate.
The trail started out mellow and snow-free. One blow-down was encountered before the junction with Eagle Lakes trail, and past that there was a solid handful of blow-downs to work through/under/over, which slowed us down a bit (if it helps for reference, we thought the trail to Libby Lake/Hoodoo that we hiked two weeks prior was much worse blowdown-wise). Crater Creek was running high - we were grateful for the 2 solid bridges that crossed it! Lots of running water and some mud to be found on trail.
The blow-downs eased a little as the snow increased. Patchy snow started in the 5k elevation range and was mostly continual coverage after 6k. We opted for snowshoes somewhere after 6k feet as the post-holing was bad - especially with overnight packs on. Post-holing around melting snow bridges, buried logs and boulders kept us on our toes.
Lower Crater Lake was thawing around edges. We camped on snow by the lake as we didn't find any snow-free spots to fit a tent.
We headed up Raven Ridge in the evening after setting up camp. The snow going up was honestly pretty terrible; lots more more post-holing around buried boulders and trees. We started with snowshoes on for a while but took them off to climb a bare patch of rock/talus and booted it after that.
Once we gained the ridge at around 8k feet it was mostly snow-free. We stashed the snowshoes and boulder-hopped to the summit block. A couple of scramble moves got us to the top of Raven Ridge! Time was short so we took a few quick photos and boogied back down in fading light as fast as the post-holing allowed.
Brought but did not use: Helmet/ice axe/crampons/spikes.
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