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Pretty well packed trails below treeline (especially Jewell which was well consolidated) and nice crunchy rimish snow dominating above made for easy hiking. I started out in microspikes but at the gem pool snowshoes (at least mine with large crampons) were better. Above treeline snowshoes best although Jewell above treeline was a bit slow with all the exposed rock tips. Upper Jewell also had some braids in the trail. Beautiful sunny day for most of it, windy only on top of Monroe and after getting near Washington, and even then not bad until we headed down to Jewell. The col before Clay was windy enough to almost knock me over a couple of times, and it blew ice BBs & snow off the cog railway tracks into my face and especially into the mighty tough little dog's. This just added some spice to an otherwise pretty easy hike, and he was outhiking me otherwise all day. Saw a couple of nice guys sitting on the hut peak and later on George; no one else on Monroe when we were there, and a group of skiers congregating at the top of Washington before going down the road lickety split. Now I have to put skis on the little mutt's gear list along with snowshoes and boots. What a great day, in a great weekend.
