Yellow Aster Butte — Friday, Jun. 21, 2024

Still quite a lot of snow up there, beginning around 4,700ft as others have noted.

We found the one campsite at 4830ft to be a snowfree oasis; room for 2-3 tents possibly. We got to camp around 7PM Friday evening; still 3 hours of daylight to get settled in. We lazed around the next morning and set out to see how far we could get toward YAB.

You can either continue up the gully, or bear right at the campsite to try to stay on the main trail, though you will be on snow most of the way with a few breaks where it's melted or tree covered where there was much less snow. There is a large tree down lengthwise right on the trail just below the junction to Gold Run Pass, See photo caption for exact location. 

There is a stretch of snow-free trail on the south-facing traverse, but that is short-lived, so you'll be on snow nearly all the way. The route is more direct. Expect to post-hole, and be increasingly aware as the snow bridges melt out and expose more hazards. Grippy footwear, gaiters, and microspikes helped make way across the very soft, wet snow. Definitely expect to post-hole. Most of the larger stream crossings up above 5,000ft were still snow-covered, though signs are showing they'll punch through soon, so be careful. 

We stopped at about 5,750ft, just below the intersection where you can head toward the summit or head down to the popular lake basin camping area. One site in the copse of trees was melted out. The route to Tomyhoi is all snow, and one couple said they turned back just short of the summit due to sketchy conditions.

After enjoying a sandwich with the big views of Baker, Shuksan, and the Nooksack valley, we headed back to camp and rested a bit. We contemplated another night up there, but some falling raindrops decided that it'd be better to pack up and head down.