Early Spring Summit

The hike

So I have had this one on my list for a while and finally decided to give it a go via the Mt. Cutler TH. Yaktrax were needed as soon as I stepped out of my car as the parking area was a sheet of slick ice. Most of the trail all the way to the split was crunchy ice, watery ice, or snow. At the trail split for Muscoco the trail dried out for a while and that made the steepness manageable. At the saddle is a nice flat area with nice views. Here, the trail starts to circle Muscoco and the trail becomes snowy for most of the way to the top. The snow was warm and melting and so slippage was a problem. The trail is fairly narrow with a steep drop off to the right (North) but passable as long as you watch each step. At the junction with Daniels Pass trail the Muscoco trail gets steep for the last 300' push to the top. The summit has great views in all directions. Looking down on Mt. Cutler makes it look so small. My camera and I were at odds with the picture taking so the 10 or so photos I took at the top will have to be reproduced on the next ascent. 1 hour and 15 minutes up that included some route finding on my part and gentle steps in the snow/ice, 11 minutes at the top, 58 minutes down with some more route finding as I flew by some of my own tracks and had to back-track with the GPS.