We arrived before sunrise to find very few vehicles in the available parking near the gate to Monte Cristo. The lower sections of the trail get heavy traffic and there were no obstacles of any difficulty on the way up to Gothic Basin. We moved quickly and were not bothered by flying insects, but the air quality seemed to lower as we gained altitude due to the wildfire smoke.
The trip to Foggy Lake took about 3 hours. We took the trail around the lake and ascended a small ridge, following the trail until we reached the base of the talus field. Proceed with caution from this point on, as even the bigger stones are not settled into place and will often move.
After slowly making our way to and then into the gully, we transitioned onto a moderately sloped portion around three quarters of the way up the chute. The scrambling lines up to the summit offer plenty of solid holds, but present significant exposure in a couple of areas in turn, more if you meander a move or two too far in the wrong direction.
The summit itself offered a great vantage point, though the air was fairly hazy with smoke. There were tons of flying ants, so we took our pictures and left after just a couple of minutes. So quickly, we totally forgot to look for the summit register!
The down climb was easier than expected, owing to the better vantage point over the lines down. Nonetheless, it is still quite steep in places, and we moved deliberately. The talus back to the lake was equally unstable on descent. We were happy to have had the route to ourselves for the whole climb, as the sheer amount of loose rocks could make things treacherous if they were knocked loose from above by another party. This was not a place to skip wearing a helmet.
The rest of the hike down was straightforward and smooth. The total distance was just over 11 miles with around 4200 feet of elevation gain. Total time was about 8.5 hours, including breaks. There were around 25 or so other hikers on the trail. There was limited AT&T coverage on the summit.
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