Missing red puffy, think it blew away from camp at lunch counter, if found will pay for shipping (253)225-8870
Trail up is dusty and exposed until you get to the snow fields, which aren’t too bad till lunch counter. There is limited flowing water past Morrison creek crossing, the melting snow is trickling under the rocks then absorbing/evaporating in the wind?Plan on bringing extra fuel to melt snow or plastic bags to melt it on the rocks for peace of mind. Our group found some flowing water at lunch counter that was intermittent (had to dig to get enough pooling to collect)
Summit was hard as everyone says (acclimating at lunch counter definitely helped) we used micro spikes and poles. Clear day, so summit views were phenomenal! Nobody enjoyed the descent, very steep and by the time we came down the snow was slushy and slippery, we did a mix of glissading and trying to walk down the steep stuff (spikes didn’t help much/people were saying neither were crampons) was able to control speed by digging in my poles, but the ice ax people definitely felt more confident/comfortable with speed control glissading)
The trail past the snowfields on a hot day seemed extra miserable. We were so tired, we got off trail. There is a sign post for south climb that seems to be pointing in the wrong direction,, just make sure you take the traverse/check Gaia before continuing downhill.
All in all , it was worth the adventure! Don’t be a minimalist about nutrition, it will take longer than you think, and you will need more water electrolytes and easy quick calories than you think.
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