Dickerman hasn't had a fresh report in nearly three months, so here's an update on the current conditions. Right now, It looks more like May or June conditions rather than February.
The Mountain Loop Highway is gated for the season at the usual place, just east of Silverton (elevation ~1600'). The road is snow-free beyond the gate, so I used my bike to ride the 3.7 miles or so to the Dickerman Trailhead (~25 minutes). The trail is also snow-free all the way up to about 4000' elevation. Once on the snow, I found that micro-spikes worked ok for a while, but I wound up putting on the snowshoes at around 4400 feet, and wore them to the summit at 5723 feet. I used poles all the way, but some may wish to have an ice axe.
Usually there is a "winter route" which goes directly up from around the 4400 foot level, but I found that the snow conditions weren't that favorable for using that route. With the lower-than-normal snow pack, it was brushy, and there were some stream gullies that had melted out and formed mini canyons. I tried to stay closer to the summer trail route, which seemed to work better.
Weather was fabulous today and the views were great. My log book says it's the 24th time I've summited Dickerman (first time was 1986).
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