Glacier Basin is mostly snow free to Emmons overlook.

Just a bit after the overlook it abruptly changes to virtually 100% cover, ideal for skiers I suppose.

Early in the morning traction would be wise if it was cold enough for the snow to freeze during the night.

Glacier Basin camp area still has snow cover, but it is looking not too deep.

Inter Glacier looks solid with no visible crevsases or depressions

Snow free from ridge up to Steamboat Prow.

This trail is heavily used by climbers and skiers this time of year.  Hence, there is an excellent boot path all the way to meadow in the basin.

Minor snow starts at 1.6 mi from the TH.  I call it forest snow.  They are large patches of intermittent snow that are easy to traverse.  

By 1.75 mi, the trail is snow free again or at least a portion of the trail is snow free.  There are areas of the trail where one can walk along the edge of the snow while staying on trail.  There are also sections of mud and/or water or the trail is a portion of a stream itself.

The real snow starts at 5,400 ft.  About 2.4 mi from the TH.  No way around it.  At this point, I was traversing the next mile and approximately 600 ft of elevation climb, through snow following the boot path. 

This section was all ice this morning.  Microspikes worked well except for the areas that were well skied.  Those areas were a little dicey as it was too frozen for microspikes to get any grip going uphill.  If one were to wait until later in the day, it might be better.  Then again, it might mean a ton of post-holding.  Hard to tell.

This trail is well known for the danger of snow bridges in early season and when snow is still present.  

The good news is that all of the actual wooden bridges are visible.  Even though snow is present, it is easy to tell where to cross safely.  

There is one exception.  It is the last stream/bridge crossing prior to the basin.  See the pic below.  There isn’t a good way to utilize the actual bridge.  There is a boot bath around the crossing.  However, it is hard to tell how long that path will last with the volume of usage.

I did pass 12 skiers heading up on my way out.

With White River Rd closing tomorrow, I thought I would head up Glacier Basin trail and try to get to the Burroughs and loop around to Sunrise, one last time this year.

I headed up Glacier Basin trail from the White River GG parking lot being the only car in the lot. In fact, there were not any cars on my way in at any of the MRNP trails from Crystal Lakes, Owyhigh Lake and/or Summerland TH’s.

I took the spur trail 2.4 miles from the Glacier Basin TH and headed up the connector trail to the Burroughs.  It was snowing at this point.  The dusting type of snow.  Wind was the bigger issue.  Wind was pretty stiff all morning.  

A mile up the connector trail, where the trail becomes more exposed, the wind was so strong it was hard to keep my feet.  I knew it was only going to get worse as I gained in elevation. Hence, I turned around at that point.

I decided to head back to the car enjoying the snow falling and the solitude of the trail.  I was still the only car in the lot on my return.  

There were two cars at the Summerland TH, none at Owyhigh TH, 2 cars at the White River Ranger Cabin parking lot and 1 car at Crystal Lakes. Quiet morning in the park.

Lost and found department: Reply here or email at christoblehbleh@gmail.com if you lost a pack cover near frozen lake Tuesday. My bad if you were going back for it later. 😬

Did a loop from White River down the Glacier Basin trail and up to 3rd Burroughs. Then hit Skyscraper mountain and ran down through the Sunrise Visitor center lot before getting on the Wonderland back to White River. So eerie seeing Sunrise empty on a sunny day, hard to believe it’s already fall. 

Nothing really notable, trails were in great shape. Sunny but a little hazy. Really only reported for the lost and found.