What an adventure!  I summited Cucamonga Peak with my Son, Cole last year, later in the Spring – it was snow free and a nice way to start our 2020 Six-Pack.

This time, the trail was great up Icehouse to the Icehouse Saddle, but there were intermittent snow fields on shaded slopes and after the second saddle below Cucamonga Peak, it was mostly snow-covered up to 3 ft deep!  My daughter Natalie (almost 17) and I made it to the top in some difficulty wearing only sneakers with no poles or ice axe. Most of the other hikers had snow spikes and a few had regular crampons; most had poles.  Should have been better prepared but we were never in real danger as we carefully scrambled across the snow fields and trudged up through deep snow to the clear and warm summit.  Hot tea and half a Starbucks breakfast sandwich each lifted our spirits for the trek down.  We made it safely and went to Monrovia for a big sushi and bento dinner with brother Cole and wife Dayna.

Quite a day and lots of good memories.

On the way up we helped a fellow hiker that cut his leg open with a crampon spike – with Natalie's help we patched him up and presume he's OK as we did not see him on the way down.   Reminder to bring your first aid kit on treks!