It was dark when Treen and I started up the old Mailbox Peak trail, but it's always dark. There was no one around, but there's never anyone around. The trail was in worse condition than last time, but it's always... yeah. Pretty much the same conditions down low as usual.
The first spot of ice on the trail was at the Vertical Halfway Log. By the time we got to the Last Engineered Switchback there was enough ice to demand traction. From the Green Gate on it was all snow with a half inch of fresh powder on top. Snow was falling lazily and I climbed the entire day in a light wool base layer. (WoolX, of course. Duh.)
Contrast that with the last two times. On one of those trips it was raining so much I had to change my shirt before the final summit push even though I was wearing fancy Gore-Tex gear. (To be fair, that jacket is getting serviced since it pretty much failed completely.) The other trip Treen and I were nearly blown off the mountain.
Heck. It was so not terrible that I sat down to enjoy the snowfall and let Treen explore some of the drifts on the ridge. Don't get me wrong. It was far from one of those dreamy Mailbox climbs that keep us coming back, but at least it didn't chase us away. And sometimes that's all I can ask for when checking the mail.
