View the photos at
http://members12.clubphoto.com/robert634908/1310304. They show the conditions pretty well so I won't elaborate in this already lengthy (sorry!) report. Remember that conditions can change on a daily basis.
Saturday, my party of 3 got to Trail Camp in 5.5 hours. There was no sign of people having been that high since the storms of the past week, so we had to break trail in fresh snow much of the weekend. The last running water was at Mirror Lake.
Sunday morning we left Trail Camp at 6:30 and were on the summit by 12:30. (Longer than usual because of the heavy snow coverage on the back side; in January it only took 4 hours.) Left the summit about 1:00 and were back at Trail Camp at 2:30; packed up and started down at 3:15 and were at the Portal by 5:45.
It was a nice weekend, a little chilly between Trail Crest and the summit. I'd guess the temperature Saturday night at slightly below freezing. I started off wearing only thermal underwear and a pile shirt in my +25 degree bag inside a bivy sack, and had to take the shirt off.
On summit day we climbed with two other parties, of 3 and 11. Also, 4 dayclimbers started from the Portal early and did the round trip in about 12 hours. All told, 22 made the summit Sunday, including 4 from the MR (I think I have these numbers about right).
There have been numerous questions regarding gear lately. First, snowshoes: No one took them, except that the party of 11 opted for one of their crew to carry a small pair; they figured if it got soft they would put him in front. Snowshoes would have been dead weight on Saturday. Late Sunday afternoon we sank in about 6 inches frequently and sometimes a little deeper, but gravity was with us and it wasn’t bad.
Ice axes: My party used them only for the glissade down from Trail Crest. Otherwise, we used hiking poles. Later, when the snow gets harder, ice axes will be invaluable for climbing the chute safely.
Crampons: My party took crampons but didn't use them. Most of the others used them in the chute up to Trail Crest. In a couple of days, melt/freeze will probably make crampons nice to have in the chute for almost everyone.
Boots: I used well-sealed leather boots and they were fine. I don't have an accurate count but would guess that the others' comprised 40% plastic, 40% leather and, yes, 20% lightweight cloth boots or running shoes. Nobody mentioned being unhappy with their selection.
Avalanche danger: Don't worry. More on this with the pictures.
View from the summit, looking south:
<img src="http://a9.cpimg.com/image/15/00/18832149-c90d-0200008F-.jpg"width=640>
