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.