Beautiful day for a snow acclimation hike. I'm not ready to wear pants yet so I'm glad the conditions afforded me another shorts hike. It was foggy and chilly at home, but the Crystal Mt cams showed partially clear skies so we headed up that way. Last min decided to head to Suntop to scout the conditions there. FS 73 was OK - at least better than beyond the 7315 turnoff. 7315 was about the same. There's a tree leaning over the road which requires you to squeeze underneath. A full size Chevy truck got under so sedans and mid-SUVs should be fine. Snow starts on the road maybe 2 miles from the small lot below the closed gate. We were concerned about losing traction as there was packed snow, but we had absolutely no issues. Heading down was actually worse since we were stuck in the ruts and gave up a bit of control.
Parked in the small lot and headed up the trail which had some minor snow, but traction wasn't needed. Spent some time at the top in the sun and took in some views. Rainier was partly in clouds. The toilet is open, but without TP. Went back down the road and I think that would've been more effort coming up than the trail.
We continued on 1183 over toward Ranger Creek and went a little over a mile to the viewpoint (really the only other one facing Rainier on this trail) There were spots of snow, just above ankle height and ice in spots, but no traction needed yet. The snow looked to be more continuous beyond the viewpoint. There's only a partial view of Rainier on a good day, so no pictures today.
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