The road was plowed all the way to the Denny Creek TH for the Southwest Slopes route. The trail was packed till tree-line. Immediately after tree-line, there was a snow field that my friend put his snow shoes on while I did not. I post holed for a distance and then decided to put on my shoes. There are portions of the trail that did not necessitate snowshoes however we kept them on because it was intermittent. The ridge had many uncovered rocks and also one snow field about 2-2.5 ft. deep for 100-200 yards. Near the summit, we dropped off our shoes and used our micro-spikes. All in all, I'm glad we brought snow shoes. It can be done without them but it would be difficult. Our tracks at the lower elevations will likely still exist, however the ridge was incredibly windy and the snow had filled them before we descended. It appeared to have snowed approx 1-3 inches but it's hard to tell what was just moved around from the wind.
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