Husband and I started out at the old mailbox trailhead at 8am (ish). As reported by others, there was some packed snow and ice on the hill leading to the upper parking lot, but the Crosstrek got through it just fine.

We're still in the build-up phase of our training, so he hauled a 33lb pack, mine was 22lbs and we split up early to establish individual baseline times to the top.

I put on my micro-spikes where the trees begin to open up (a bit below where the old and new trails meet). Trail was snow and ice free until that point. The general idea was to be on the way down before the wind and snow arrived in the afternoon. Conditions have changed already since we did this hike (due to that wind and snow I just mentioned), but on that day, despite the lingering packed snow and ice on the trail, the summer route was in and the rocks were bare. There was less snow on the trail than I'd expected even on the final push to the top.

It took me 2 hours and 9 minutes. Not my best time, but I've done worse for sure, especially with a stop to spike up and another stop to change gloves. Wind began kicking up just a few minutes before I reached the top (according to my husband who was waiting for me). “Wind is my kryptonite” as I like to say, so I tagged the top and promptly retreated.

NOTE: I don't have any photos of that day (due to the hasty retreat), but we do this one often, so here's a photo from our warm up climb to Mailbox Peak on the previous Sunday (Jan 23rd).