Ragu

One additional note to your question about ice... while we didn't break through the crust on the lower 2/3's of the face, we were able to shove pickets straight in without much effort. We didn't encounter any ice to speak of...

We were up there on June 23rd, and as Dakobed mentioned the Boston was soft and strenuous. Some of the crevasses were starting to open, and we crossed fairly high. The face itself was in perfect condition. Our crampons barely made any impression, as the route was in the shade all morning. We reached the base at 9:00 am, and hit the last several hundred feet in the sun. These last 2 pitches we were able to kick some decent steps. Good luck.

I was climbing on Hood about 3 weeks ago, and had very nice conditions on Leuthold Coulior (West side). The snow was soft and shin/knee deep below the hourglass, and wind scoured above (great for cramponing). Some of the walls on the sides of the coulior were bare rock, but there weren't any rocks coming down, just a lot of spindrift. Watch out for warm days as there are a lot of weak layers in this snowpack. Otherwise, if you have clear days and a low freezing level, conditions on Sandy should be perfect right now. Tim