Trail feels like summer until around 5,500ft. Wildflowers, sunshine, bright green mossy trees, it's amazing. Sneak peeks of Reynolds are gorgeous. There are a few downed trees but everything was easy to step over or walk around, and no issues following the trail.
We hit consistent snow around 5,500ft, and from there it was either boot it in pretty well consolidated snow or skin up to the lake. We booted it the first night and skiied down. There's no clear trail to follow but the terrain is mellow and the thicker forest doesn't last long so as long as you can follow a map you'll be fine. Once you're above the trees, you need to start at the bottom left of the slope up to the lake and do a rising traverse to the right to crest the top just near the outlet stream.
The lake is still frozen but not frozen enough to skin. We camped on a rock patch on the far side of the lake and skinned up Abernathy the next morning. Consistent snow to the top, icy crust or hero corn or crap slush depending on time of day. There are a few small slopes with avalanche danger (set off a small slab and more than enough sloughing for one weekend), but the snowpack will be getting better. Between the overnight rain and the morning of direct sunlight the snowpack had quite a bit of water in it for us.
Views are awesome. Reynolds, Silver Star, the Gardners in your face, it's just fantastic. First names in the summit register for 2018, though another skiier topped out shortly after our second round of laps. And the wildflowers down low on the trail are blooming - wildflowers and blue skies and skiing!! What more can you ask for?!
Any plant/tree experts out there? We passed a pine tree that was like a weeping willow except it looked like a conifer. 4th pic in the trip report. I don't think I've seen anything like it before but it's very cool. My google searches for "weeping willow conifer" have not been fruitful.
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