Ira Spring Trail - Mason Lake, Mount Defiance — Wednesday, Apr. 16, 2025

* friend of mine lost a single micro spike, those classic Kahtoola with red straps. If you find it please reply to this report *

Trail to Mason has snow starting after the tree line. Packed and slippery at times, use caution, spikes are highly recommended. Postholing was common, slipping could mean you go tumbling downhill.

Once you pass the lake towards Defiance the trail disappears, no boot path. GPS was a must. We followed the GPS track most of the time. Some of the traverses and switchbacks are sketchy since there is snow everyone, so sometimes it felt safer to ignore the track and just go straight up. Snow is mostly well compacted, but at times can be deep, up to knee high. Postholing up to your waist also happened a few times. Once you hit the ridge it gets better, until you get to the end of the tree line, where usually there is a long traverse across an open meadow. That part is all steep and deep snow, so instead we tried to go straight up to summit. Gave up probably 400ft from summit, dog started to sync in snow and it got really steep. Amazing views anyhow from there.

Add a least an hour more of time due to the snow, and be ready for a slog of slipping and postholing 😀