Before I get to details please note the following: I found 2 very disappointing things on the way up/down: The first was poo. Full wag bags were left many places. For example, there was one 20’ from Lone Pine lake, another In the middle of a small island in the creek at Trailside Meadow, and several others spots. There was also uncovered human waste about 8’ from the lake at trail camp. The second disappointment was trash. It is early summer still, and there was a lot of trash on the trail and around camps. Not all of it was microtrash that was inadvertently carried away by the wind. For example, there was one gallon size orange juice bottle (?!) on the trail near trail camp. I had no more room left in my pack or I would have picked it up.
Please pack out your feces like you agreed to do! I can't see why it would be, if its an emergency and you must leave it, go AT LEAST 100 feet from water source or camp, dig deep and cover, and don’t add plastic (wag bag) to your biohazard litter. Please try to leave the mountain cleaner than you found it. No one goes there to see other peoples poo and trash.
Rant over, now trail report from trip on 6/8 through 6/11.
Lower trail still has snow blocking switchbacks in a few places past Lone Pine Lake and up. They are easily seen and passed in daylight. It is not flooded, stream crossings are easily doable. Switchbacks were not yet usable. I did talk to one crew that said they climbed them past the cables but did not make it to trail crest. Not sure how they did that.
Started chute at 06:00, reached trail crest at about 08:00. It was just barely starting to soften up at about 8:00. I did it with spikes and an axe. I think the spikes were better than crampons. A few people were making ascent with only poles and spikes/crampons. Ascent was doable this way, but descending without axe was very strenuous and dangerous.
Past trail crest there are still several snowed/iced over areas on trail. In a several places hikers must follow the tracks off/above trail through well packed and iced over snow. Most of these are over sheer drops, so not for faint of heart. The big boulder blocking trail-pictured in an earlier post-no longer has any snow around it.
The glissade descent from trail crest was done in soft corny mash at about noon. From the top it is very intimidating, and I would not have wanted to do it without the axe, nor with any shadows on the slope. Many folks were unfamiliar with technique, and a few got dangerously out control. Its surprising no one got seriously injured. A few lost poles, and one lost an axe on descent. These were retrieved during the short time I was watching, but it's possible some were not since the season began, so add potentially submerged projectiles to glissade hazard list. Go as slow as you can.
I will add that I had no experience with this equipment, but studied and practiced glissading, arresting and other axe skills before attempt. It was still at the hairy edge of my comfort zone.
