Started this hike at 6:30 in the morning with a group of 6. The hike up to the summit itself was not too difficult. 4 or 5 river crossings due to the recent rainfall made it exciting, but posed little problem for our group. The patches of ice on the trail within the last couple miles on the way up, however, sketched us out a little bit. Trekking poles and/or microspikes will help a ton on this portion of the trail.

Once we summited around 11:30, a worker at the observatory told us that a hiker had slipped off the trail and search and rescue was out to help them. On top of that, a storm was going to roll through starting between 1 and 2. We took that as our cue to get out of Dodge and get back on the trail. Almost immediately after getting back on trail, the sky started to open up. Cue hail and rain for the remaining 4 hours of the hike out.

Thanks to everyone having rain gear and taking it slow, we were able to enjoy the surreal experience that walking through the forest during a hailstorm presented. This will definitely be a hike that I will remember forever.