Bill and myself left Lone Pine Mcdonalds at 7:00 am Friday for the portal. The road was still snowed over. Parked around the first hairpin and started the slog up. I was hoping for a nice trail to follow from the portal, but just remnants of the trail we blazed a few weeks ago were left. So it was like starting over again. The falls below lower boyscout were in good condition for ice climbing. I decided to try the ledges and got one half way before turning around, and heading back up the north fork. When we arrived at lower boyscout there were no other tracks than the ones we left before. After putting on snowshoes to cross diagonally over the lake I was too lazy to take them off and kept them on until reaching upper boyscout. The ice falls there were also in good shape for climbing. We camped under the pine trees at upper. The wind was howling that night, but calmed down before morning. After playing the waiting game as to who gets up first, we didn’t get started until long after sun up. Bill led the first half of the way to iceberg and decided that was it for him. In the meantime radient temps started soaring. I was in a tee shirt and was sweating heavily. When I got to iceberg lake I had consumed all my water. I sat on the big rock and tried to cool down. My best guess would be 85 with the warmth reflecting off the snow. The chute was blown out with a thin band going up the center and rock on both sides. One lone set of tracks were heading straight up the center. With no water it was time to head down. After packing up and heading down we saw the famous Richard P. heading to upper boyscout on skies. After catching up we started back down to the portal. Then climbers were coming out of the woodwork. I counted 19 before the MR trail turned into the main trail. I felt like a broken record telling everyone conditions and to bring extra water. Arrived at pizza factory around 2:30p.m. and was back at home in san diego at 8:00pm sharp. We should be seeing a lot of summit pictures and trip reports flowing in soon. Len
