That got me thinking that it's been a long while since I last climbed it and, on that occassion, I did so only to stand in a viewless cloud shrouding the summit (McLoughlin 2009). Of course, just after jessbee's query, our "early" Spring was overtaken by a series of low pressure fronts, the last of which passed last Tuesday, to be followed by a nice high pressure area. Since I'm opposed to viewlessness, I waited until yesterday to have another go at the summit under absolutely bluebird conditions. Two months ago, the upper trailhead was closed by snow. That's all melted now and I was able to drive up to the summer TH just off the Fourmile Lake road in the Winema NF / Sky Lakes Wilderness, which, unlike the Rogue NF, is a fee area. There's a nice parking lot and vault toilet and the trail starts at the W end of the lot. There used to be a trail sign here but it seems to have gone missing.
There are two other large signs here - one in the parking lot, the other here at the wilderness boundary - which are trying to keep hikers from taking the direct (S side) way down into obscurity rather than following the ridge down.
Our last snow storm dusted the trail with about 6" of new, fluffy snow, which melted off in a day.
About a mile in, you come to the PCT, follow it for about 0.5 mi and go off to the left (W) back on to the summit trail. I could follow that trail fairly easily up to about 6400', where it completely disappeared under snow. I put on my snowshoes there and kept them on all the way to the summit. The snow wasn't very soft but they did help with flotation and their claws were useful on some slicker spots higher up. I caught a glimpse of the summit just as the terrain steepened.
Snow currently covers all the switchbacks on the trail, so the resulting hike is shorter but steeper. After about 2 mi of trudging uphill through the trees, I got to 8300' and another view of the summit.
At this point, I swung a little to the left (W) and continued on up the increasingly treeless ridge.
By about 9000', the trees are gone and the steepest part of the hike ensued - and also the most exposed since I was now passing above the expanse of the S slope. Fortunately the snow was getting a bit soft by this point, so a slip wouldn't have amounted to too much (and, sadly, neither did my attempts at a glissade).
And, then, the summit! With a view E to Brown Mountain and Fourmile Lake nearby and Klamath Lake in the distance,
the peaks forming the entire Mountain Lakes Wilderness above Lake of the Woods,
and all the peaks in and around Crater Lake National Park to the NE.
I could make out Mt. Shasta to the S but haze made photographing it difficult. Still this is one of the greatest unobstructed views in Southern Oregon! After soaking up the view, the sun, and lunch on the summit, I headed back the way I'd come up. I took the snowshoes off for the descent but had no significant problems with post holes or soft snow. A really great snow hike - 9 mi (about a mile shorter than the trail) and 3900' EG - under awesome bluebird conditions. The snow is slowly retreating up the trail and there is some melting out around the boulders higher up but I'm guessing that this will be a good snow hike at least through mid-May.
