the little mini-heatwave this weekend caused the snow to be soft and generally mush by afternoon.
Left the White River campground at 6:15 with a group of Mountaineers and summited roughly around 11am. Snow on trail roughly starting at 5300' and we crossed the Interfork up high past the campsite before turning left and gaining the east ridge.
Many climbers and skiers on Steamboat but we didn't go down the glacier basin even though it looked quite good (no exposed crevasses from our view). The glissades were well worth the work going up with about 2300' of mellow slushy glissade descent - definitely the highlight of the trip.
Didn't need spikes or crampons. Definitely ice axe to help with steep parts and the glissade rudder.
If you're curious about the glissades, check out the youtube video linked here
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