Made this trip on the Monday of 17th June. So still the summer route is closed - this was the winter route. Road till the parking was super clear, no problem. Very less people who had decide to ascend the peak on this day - just about 10.
The first 2 miles is like any standard forest trail, in the trees. The next 1 mile was purely on the rocks and a little up. Here is where you cross the 4800 feet mark above which you need to have the permit.
Suddently mist swolled the whole mountain and i decided to sit and wait. After 20 mins it cleared and i decided to go forward.
Then comes the fun part - just climp up the snow clad mountain. The snow depth i guess should be little more than a feet. There were exposed rocks on many sides. As those places were sand with stones, sometimes it was easier to walk on the level snow.
The weather was quite bad as I went up - i had to stop 0.3 miles before the summit as it become super worse, no visibility, winds of 20-25 mph and snowing all the time. Glissading was fun on the way back - did that for 50% of the snow so could come back super fast and comfortable.
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