We climbed Cascade and Porter today, Jan. 10, wearing stabilicers non-stop. The trail is packed hard and quite bumpy. Likely Tuesday or Wednesday a lone hiker under much warmer temperature punched deep his way to Cascade summit. We carried crampons and snowshoes, crampons were never needed and the very bumpy condition of the trails would have made using snowshoes a real pain. It will need at least a foot of snow to cover the mess. The whole summit of Cascade was totally free of ice and snow. In the woods but for a few places there is about a foot of whitish stuff left. When by mistake we stepped beside the center tracks we would punch through the crusty snow.
Brooks and river still higher than normal but have gone down significantly. Trail was muddy in places, actually it was mcuh like mid-April conditions!