Wife and I made the grueling hike up yesterday 10-9-15.
We started at 4:00am and got back to our car at 8:20pm
It is totally doable but grueling with the snow.
We made great time to Mirror Lake. Snow was all around us but the path was clear and easy to follow.
From Mirror Lake to Trail Camp: Mostly clear of snow. The closer you get to Trail Camp the more snow there is covering the trail. When we came down alot of it was melting. (Going up we were slipping on the slush but it wasn't to bad. On the way down it was melted away.)
From Trail Camp to Cables : (We put on our Crampons at Trail Camp) Its was all snow from here on. We followed what looked like the main trail and came to a spot with two maybe three options. Option 1 was a straight shot to the cables. Option 2 looked like a straight sho1 to Trail Crest. We went with Option 1 and made it to the cables. Thanks to some other hikers most of it was packed, but every 10 steps or so I would sink in a foot or more.
From Cables to Trail Crest: Not to bad because we were back on a trail but every so often your foot would sink and mess up your rhythm.
Trail Crest to Almost Summit: This part was BRUTAL. This 2.5 mile leg took us 2hours 45mins. Certain parts I would lose a leg and the snow easily went past my knee. A few times I sank up to my thigh (i'm 5'8.) Once you get past all the other peaks and its just the last shot to the summit it is clear of snow. We took off our crampons and just bouldered/hiked to the top.
** Coming down the snow got a lot softer. From Almost summit to Trail Camp I kept sinking every 3rd step or so. I was miserable, especially because my wife was flying and had no problems with the soft snow.
Amazing hike, I'm sure a lot of the snow will be gone in the next few days.
On the log book at the house there were 5 people who made it before us for Oct 9th. And only 1 person Oct 8th.
