The famously steep Mt. Rose trail, featuring a hefty 3500' of elevation gain, is in good condition up to Horse Camp. Heavy snow covers part of the final 1.1 mile climb to the summit - it will take several weeks to melt it all. Scattered bits of flag tape mark the path of the trail in the snow, but you might want to take along a GPS unit to help with navigation. The summit area of Mt. Rose is free of snow and perfect for enjoying the vertiginous view down to Lake Cushman. We hiked the alternate trail down from Mount Rose and found extensive snow cover with a few bare areas on the ridge line that this trail initially follows. Heavy snow covers the trail where it drops off the ridge, but orange markers nailed to the trees help with navigation here. The snow ends about 400 feet down, and much of the trail is free of snow down to Horse Camp. Some blowdowns need clearing.

Mount Rose My wife and I started at the trailhead at noon on May 4th. The weather was perfect at around 70 degrees. I wasn't prepared for the difficulty of this climb, and only got to the commemorative sign before turning back due to snow covering the trail a few hundred yards above. I was also exhausted! Our kids are 11, 16 and 19 and would not have been able to do this hike so we were glad they had stayed home. We plan on trying again in June with better boots and possibly some hiking poles. A quiet uncrowded hike but steep.

Very good day for a hike 80 degrees; trail is steep but great way to start the spring hiking. At the horse camp chose the left 1.2mi steep trail and come back the 1.6mi. Trail up was marked ok just had to really look for orange flags as the snow was melting and the footprints were not easy to see. The Summit was awesome with great rock outcroppings that allowed great views. The trail down was not mark very good at all, probably the worst marking I have every seen had to just work my way down through the snow into the draw and work my way to the sound of the waterfall to reach the horse camp again. Legs are still stiff tough hike for the first one this year.

Trail in great shape, but my legs where not up to reaching summit yet. Had some miles on my legs already so only went to “Horse Camp” where the trail slips and offers you options. I choose to rest and head back down leaving the summit for another day. Trail is a challenge due to steepness, but offered some nice views and sounds of waterfalls and streams. I will be back with fresher legs.

The trail is in great shape up to the junction. Then the snow starts and quickly gets deeper and the trail gets steeper. We found it difficult to follow the trail and were doing some post-holing in the softening snow by about 1/3 mile from the junction. About then we came across three guys coming down from the summit they told us the snow was soft and they had done a lot of post holing. We decided to turn around saving the summit for another day.