Seven of us hiked in on Sunday, May 25 hoping to summit on Memorial Day. We had originally planned to hike up to Trail Camp, but decided to set up at Outpost instead due to increasingly poor visibility and deep snow. It was snowing pretty hard most of Sunday, and there was snow starting at the trailhead. There was about a foot of fresh powder at Outpost. It started clearing up by the late afternoon, but still snowed off and on most of the night.
The next morning (Memorial Day), it had cleared up quite a bit, and we started heading up the trail. Most of the trail was pretty well packed up to Trail Camp, and was not difficult to follow. There were short sections above Trailside Meadow that were a bit hairy, traversing some pretty steep snow slopes, so we put on crampons for those just to be safe. The snow was pretty soft still, so a slip probably wouldn't have been too bad, but the snow is consolidating quickly, and will probably be fairly hard by this weekend. We didn't continue too far past Trail Camp, and it seemed that most people turned around there as well. I didn't see anyone camping there on Monday. The switchbacks are pretty much buried under the snow, and it doesn't seem that anyone has really broken the trail yet.
Tuesday morning, we packed up at started hiking out at around 8:30. The snow was melting fast, and a few small patches of Outpost Camp were clear of snow. Much of trail on the way down was still covered in snow, up until about Lone Pine Lake. Several sections were very slippery, as the snow had melted on Monday and refroze overnight. I was tempted to put on crampons for some of the steeper parts, but got by OK without them using just hiking poles. We got out safe and sound around 10:30, just as it began snowing heavily again.
I would strongly recommend ice axes and crampons for anyone who is going up anytime soon.
Lots of pics here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/18022482@N00/sets/72157605294612704/
