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On Friday (5/8) night, we hiked into the Lillian Brook Lean-to. The trail from Elk lake was very wet with lots of mud, as usual. Camped Friday night then took off for Macomb via the slide on Saturday. Trail to the slide was good, dry and easy to follow. Not much blowdown. The slide was as expected---mostly dry, no snow and soft in the sand. Above the slide was another story. There were three main stretches of snow on the trail above the slide and the only option was to try to straddle the snow or step on what looked like some firm spine. Neither technique was very effective, and it was not very much fun, but completely managable. Top of Macomb was completely in the clouds and we decided not to continue on to the other three (not Dix). We knew thunder was in the forecast, so went back down the way we came. It was a good call considering an hour after getting back to the lean-to, we encountered a terrible rain/lightning/hail storm. Snowshoes or crampons would not have been helpful. I'd say your looking at two or three more weeks before a dix range traverse would be a good idea.
