This trail is steep, but very well maintained by a some retirees in Shelton. Good job! After climbing about 2000 ft in the first 1.8 mi, I took the ""ridge"" fork to the summit. Aside from one area of concentrated blowdowns (follow the blazes), the trail is very easy to follow. There are some patches of snow before reaching the ridge itself, but they're hard-packed and easy to negotiate. The ridge itself is snow free. The trail follows the ridge to the summit, which is indicated by a large promentory rock (4.0 mi, 3500 ft elev. gain) with some good views of Mt. Skokomish, Lake Cushman, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound. The clouds cleared out to the 4500 foot level, which was OK since the summit of Mt. Rose is at 4300 ft. Mt. Ellinor's summit, less than a mile to the NE, was in the clouds all day long. I returned down via the ""summit"" fork, which still had deep snow in the upper reaches of the north-facing chute. Staying to the right of the bottom of the chute and plunge-stepping down steep snow, I eventually found little bits and pieces of the trail. Stay away from the trees & rocks because it gets very postholey. After eating lunch beside a nice waterfall, I returned to the trailhead tired but satisfied (6.9 mi).

On a beautiful Saturday morning, two companions and I set out to make the summit of Mt. Rose for an early season conditioner. The trail is in excellent shape with only two small trees blown down. Snow started on this day at about 2500 feet, with snow at the trail junction (3050 feet) several feet deep. We took off on the summit trail, which was soon lost among many footprints heading in various directions. By staying on a general compass bearing for the summit, we made it to the top with no problem. The summit rock was exposed on the south side, making a great spot for lunch. On the way down, we followed the ridge trail, which was well beaten in and easy to follow. There's much less snow than last year at this time, so this should continue to be a great conditioning hike for the remainder of the Spring.

No snow on trail. Steep! But fun to walk up to where it's still springtime. Canadian dogwood, beargrass, and lilies blooming.

Trail very well maintained up to the snowline. Patches of snow started at around 2500 feet, and was solid by the fork in the trail at ~2900 feet. I followed the start of the ridge trail (right hand fork), but soon got tired of the painful stream crossings and hung a left and headed up the hill. Great snow conditions on the way up; hard enough so you don't sink but soft enough to make step kicking easy. At the summit, there was still ~6 feet of snow with drifts to 12 feet or so, and it was still snowing today. The views there are nice, but (as always) lots of clouds so there wasn't too much to see. The snow was mostly hard enough to walk on reasonably without snowshoes, but in several places there were signs of people breaking through up to their waist. Ski poles and/or ice axe definitely recommended, I lugged snowshoes (good exercise...) but didn't need them. If the snow was a little softer, they would be handy. Not too many signs of recent traffic at the top, but I'm sure that will be changing. May be a long time before this trail is snow free this year.

Snow starts at 2100' but was solid enough to walk on without snowshoes until we hit the ridge at 3500'+. There is still 6+ feet of snow on top which means the view is much better than in the summer, since you are lifted above many of the trees which otherwise hide Mt.s Ellinor and Washington. The trail is impossible to follow under the snow. We were lucky. We followed the tracks of another party who, it turns out, knew where they were going. One nice feature of this trail is you can reach the summit without much avalanche danger.