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Overnight hike on this one. Trail was 3-4 feet of snow near the parking lot and 6+ up higher. A few inches of powder on top of a crust thick enough to hold us up with snowshoes. After the ledge at 3 miles the trail was difficult to use because you only had about 3 feet of clearence or less much of the time due to high snow. The summit clearing was boilerplate and the tower was heavily coated in rhime ice making it impossible to get onto the platform itself but we got up above the trees on the ladder.
Snowshoes seemed like a must. Setting up the tent without them we were sinking in a foot or two. Windproof winter gear on top was required too, it didn't take long for fingers to freeze while taking a few pictures from halfway up the tower.
As long as you were prepared for the wind it was great. It doesn't get any clearer than this day was. The trail is a very enjoyable and scenic trail also. We followed tracks until about 200 yards from the summit where they turned around. We continued on to tthe tower. It's possible we bushwacked up a steep section of the mountain and lost the trail for a few hundred yards but had no markings to tell and we'd never done the trail before so we are unsure. Either way our tracks go right to the icy top. I think this is one of those trails with 10 foot high trees blocking the view in the summer but in winter there's enough snow to see right over them. We experienced the same thing on the Hancock loop. They are probably both better trails for winter in my opinion.
Snowshoes seemed like a must. Setting up the tent without them we were sinking in a foot or two. Windproof winter gear on top was required too, it didn't take long for fingers to freeze while taking a few pictures from halfway up the tower.
As long as you were prepared for the wind it was great. It doesn't get any clearer than this day was. The trail is a very enjoyable and scenic trail also. We followed tracks until about 200 yards from the summit where they turned around. We continued on to tthe tower. It's possible we bushwacked up a steep section of the mountain and lost the trail for a few hundred yards but had no markings to tell and we'd never done the trail before so we are unsure. Either way our tracks go right to the icy top. I think this is one of those trails with 10 foot high trees blocking the view in the summer but in winter there's enough snow to see right over them. We experienced the same thing on the Hancock loop. They are probably both better trails for winter in my opinion.
