"Hike with AK. Started from the Tinkham Road exit. Nice little parking lot that's never full, no parking passes required also, and adds an extra bit of hike both ways. Direct sun and low 80's temps. PPP was having one of it's busiest days of the year I'd think. There were ~10 people on that tiny top at the same time when we were there. Had fun on the upper sections getting on 'all fours' for a little scrambling. Maybe my favorite peak around the I-90 shuffle (so far - haven't done them all yet :) ). Another good day in the mountains." — zachmitch • Jul 23, 2023

"4 hours up, 30 minute summit snack, 3 hours down. First snow at around 3400 feet, lots of snow on the avy chutes. After the last avy chute, almost entirely on snow. Route finding on the backside traverse not trivial. Snow slope up to the summit ride near 45 degrees. But rock on summit block solid and dry." — mathiasricken • Jun 4, 2023

"Perfect weather day hike with AK. We had some good clean fun getting off-trail and doing some light scrambling to get back on. Also had a rockfall scare (near Bandera split walking on trail), as we heard some shouts of "ROCK! ROCK!" from above and saw a microwave-sized boulder sweep by us just a few feet away. Snow was present 70% up from Mason Lake, but melting away rapidly for some added uncertainty to your steps. Ira Springs parking lot was full, but we parked at the less busy Tinkham TH for some extra mileage. Great day!" — zachmitch • Jun 3, 2023

"Mailbox up the old trail, down the new with AK. Started early and managed to beat the heat on a busy Mother's Day hike. Down in back in ~4.5 hours. Not a cloud in the sky, 88F. Snow was minimal, walked probably 20 total steps on snow." — zachmitch • May 14, 2023

"We weren’t sure if the road to the upper trailhead was open (it was), so we parked just off of I-90 and took the trail from the lower lot, then followed the winter route to Mason Lake. Snow was fairly constant as soon as we started following Mason Creek. The boulder field below Mason Lake had good snow coverage and was easy to traverse. This was the first hot day of the year and the snow was getting very soft by the time we reached the summit area. We avoided the slide-prone south-facing meadows and went directly up the southeast ridgeline, through the trees, without incident. The hike back was pleasant plunge stepping until we got back to the Mason Creek drainage, at which point there was a lot of surprise post-holing. 8 hours car-to-car, followed by pizza and beer back in Tacoma." — TynanRammGranberg • Apr 29, 2023