We arrived at the parking lot on Friday evening and got some sleep in the car, and then headed up the trail on Saturday morning. The trail is pretty beat up for the most part, not to the extent of needing to bushwhack but its definitely not as established as anything else I've encountered this season.
Taking our time up the enormous boulder fields proved wise, as we conserved our energy to use on the glacier and above. We ran into a party of 3 who summited without crampons (highly unadvisable) and were doing a car-to-car day hike. In retrospect this seems crazy - this is not an easy day hike, even if you have a light pack.
The condition of the glacier heading up to the high camp is deteriorating quickly and was very exposed. We had a scary moment punching through a snow bridge here, but backed away quickly enough and managed to back track and go around. Must be roped through all glacial travel here at this time of year.
We set up shop at a pretty crowded high camp, finding one last snow covered area on a rocky ridge overlooking the lake below. It was a cold windy night, but we woke up to beautiful clear skies and perfect conditions.
The route is boot-packed all the way up, bouncing back and forth between glacier and rock, with two distinct snow bridges to cross - the first of these bridges being the most gnarly I've experienced (the crevasse on either side was far too deep to see the bottom of).
Spending a few moments on the knife edge was amazing, taking in all the surrounding peaks and enjoying perfect conditions.
All in all - had an incredible summit day and made it back to the car at sunset on Sunday. Best climb of the year!
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