Equipment for MSH in one week?

[haldaume3]

I've been planning on climbing MSH one week from today (24th) and was surprised to see that there's still snow. I've been trying to figure out how that affects my trip . Most reports I've seen online of people climbing in snowy conditions are from February, so I'm not sure what June/July snow is like on MSH. Is this something where I will need snowshoes? An ice axe? Crampson? Or is it just packed snow that you can hike on just like you'd hike on dirt?

 

Any insight would be *greatly* appreciated!

 

[Buckaroo]

Depends on the freezing level and also on how much snow. Probably don't need snowshoes but you might want points and an axe just in case.

[RaisedByPikas]

A lot of places it is just packed snow but there are some parts where you would want and ice axe due to the steepness. Crampons will be needed if the snow firms up overnight (most likely it will) and the boot pack isn't good for some reason. You also need to know how to use them properly. Snow shoes most likely wont be needed.

[techboy]

Bumped up a couple weeks ago.

 

I brought trekking poles with snow baskets, snowshoes, ice axes, crampons, gaiters.

We started early, like 3 AM, so surface was still hard.

On the way up we were able to boot it to about 6500' - 7000' using just boots and poles. At that point we switched to crampons. From the summit down to about 7500', we used crampons and poles. By the time we hit 7500' the snow was just right and we took off the crampons and used ice axe for the glissade down.

On the way back after all the glissade fun, we were sinking 3 to 5 inches in soft snow. Probably could have used snowshoes but didn't miss them.