Date: Monday, March 22, 2021
Time start: 8:00am
Duration: 7.5 hours (including breaks)
Road Conditions: Great
Trail condition: Great until the saddle.  Pockets of snow on the trail through the junction where Big Horn and Cucamonga meet up.  All snow after.

I did this hike solo on Monday morning to celebrate 17 years of being cancer free.  I passed by a handful of people on my way up, but it was obvious that they could not go pass the saddle without any gear so I would have the mountain all to myself.  I knew from previous attempts I would need microspikes at a minimum which I had as well as hiking poles. My mistake was that I do not carry the baskets for the poles.  The trail to Ice House saddle was nice with small pockets of ice here and there, but most of it was off on the side.  By 10am I was making my way from the saddle to the peak (2.4 miles).  There on the trail was plenty of harden snow -Ice.  There were a handful of scary moments, but I had my micropikes which made things better.  I left the microspikes on even though there were sections where the snow had melted and the trail was dry, but not knowing the trail conditions I left them on so I wouldn't have to take them on and off.  Not too long I reach the junction where the trail to Cucamonga peak is met by the trail coming from Big Horn peak (supposedly, I didn't really see such a trail, but it showed on my app).  From the junction it was hell.  There were several footpaths up the mountain and no clear trail markers or indicators as there was a minimum of a foot of snow, sometimes it was waist deep. I had to pull out my app several times to make sure I was on the right direction.  The footpaths were hazardous, icy, and steep.  In hindsight there were the better of conditions and if I arrived later it would have been worse.  I traveled at a slow 1 mph from the steepness and from checking my phone every 15 steps.  The footpaths I followed went straight up the mountain instead of zig zagging with the trail's switchbacks.  It only saved me about .15 miles, but I had to follow them because I was not going to venture into a path I did not know especially being alone and without service.  I pushed and made it to the top.  Ate my two cookies and realized it took me 1.5 hours more than I expected to get from the saddle to the peak.  It was approximately 12:15pm and I honestly had expected to be back home around 2pm.  That was clearly not going to happen.  Heading back down I didn't realize how much worse things would be. The sun had soften the snow to a point that the footpaths I took were hardly noticeable.  The trail was slushy in most parts and icy in others so without the baskets on my hiking poles they were just falling deep down.  I fell several times, at one point I slipped broke my pole in the ice and slid down several feet. I was able to spot myself due to prior “mountaineering” experience doing the ice chute on Mount Whitney.  (Don't worry I hiked back up to pick up my broken poles. Leave no trace behind.) I encountered three people on my way down.  Two did not have microspikes and one person I had passed up an hour or so earlier.  I told them of the conditions and what to expect and after several minutes of debating they decided to give it a go.  I hope they made it down safely.  The girl hiking alone didn't even realize she lost her microspike which I found about 10 yards where we encountered each other.  I apologized that I was too exhausted to bring it to her, but I threw it up to her. Since the footpaths were soften over and gone I decided to look for the junction and just glissade down/hike down facing forward.  I was soaked and miserable, but glad I made down the path of hell.  For the most part I was happy to be down, expect I guess the couple that I encountered went completely off trail from the saddle so I was very puzzled about if I was taking the right trail back.  I did and after reaching the saddle I took off the microspikes and slowly jogged back to the parking lot.