TLDR: there is a bit of snow now above 3500 feet. The rocks are heavily dusted with an inch or two of snow, edging into winter travel conditions.
We hiked/ran a lollipop loop, starting from the small parking area off Exit 42, just north of the highway, up the "mushroom trail" along Mason Creek to the Ira Spring trailhead, out to Putrid Pete's Peak, along Banana Ridge, past Defiance and Mason Lake and down the new trail. The route is well described elsewhere, so a few notes on conditions:
- Snow starts to appear on the way up to P3. It wasn't terribly slippery but navigation is becoming more difficult. My Strava logged a 1h18m mile approaching the P3 summit, then a 35min mile along the ridge.
- The ridgeline had maybe two inches of snow most of the way. It was lightly snowing at times yesterday, despite being dry in Seattle.
- Finding your footing near the P3 summit and along the ridge has become a little tedious.
- We didn't tag Defiance as we'd gotten a bit cold in the scrambly sections earlier and didn't feel like re-entering the realm of Type 2 fun.
- The trail east of the Defiance turnoff was in lovely shape -- 2-3 inches of untouched snow on the trail. One of those "more comfortable in the snow than it would have been in the rain" kinds of days. Another trip reporter said it was quite mucky up there two days ago. The fresh snow cleaned that up for us, but I feel like that's a narrow window.
- The low clouds were lovely and a bit gloomy for most of the day. We got a short peek at a patch of blue sky for a minute near Mason Lake.
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