Hiked with Ric Rozenkranz and Tracy Anderson. We started at the check-in Cabin at 6:30am. The road to the Four Way was "groomed" by snowmobiles. The ridged pattern made by the tracks is less than smooth, but it's better than breaking through a foot of fresh snow for four miles. After that, we continued on the ATV trail with just boots/micro spikes. We were breaking trail for the first time since the latest storm. The snow was about 12" deep. Once the ATV trail ended, we broke into snowshoes crossing the creek and traversed the west facing slope of the sub peak into increasingly deeper snow, with drifts reaching 36" in places. Several times, the snow would crack and break away in three-foot sections giving you that mini avalanche feel. As we rounded the south facing portion is when things got difficult. The wind really started coming at us hard from the west and north. The footing underneath became extremely unreliable. For three feet you were post-holing, followed by 6 feet of snow frozen so hard you couldn't get a grip with micro spikes. It was hard to know what to have on your feet because there was no right answer. Ric and Tracy brought poles which were very helpful to tripod oneself, although, there are many hidden nooks in the snow/rock and one pole was broken off. There was much stumbling and cursing. This was also the time that while I was changing into crampons, my gloves blew away and are in Nebraska right about now. Ric had a backup pair thankfully. Although we were only at 12,500 feet, it was by far the most fatiguing and emotionally draining stretch of the day. We reached the saddle and stored our packs to lighten our load for the last push. Once we began the ascent along the final ridges and the three false summits, the edge was a mix of drifts and bare rock with enormous horizontal icicles coming off of every rock. The wind was hitting us full-on at 40 mph and you could lean into it without falling over. We had to scream just to communicate over the howl. We were very thankful to be wearing heavy snow pants, lots of layers, using hand-warmers, face coverings, and ski goggles. We could only tolerate one minute at the top, just enough time for a photo op. On the return, we opted to stay higher on the southern and west-facing sub peak to avoid the crazy mixed surface area below that had caused so much suffering and frustration on the way up. However, that meant we were descending in extremely deep snow, 3-4 feet in places. We opted to slide down on our butts for portions of it. As the sun was going down, we crossed the creek and needed headlamps to see. At the Four Way, we were drained but had hope that civilization was only four miles away and we were able to get into a rhythm for the first time in nine hours. We finished at exactly 13 hours, completely drained. See video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1cksIav62GdTn-9N2Xpcw1-v7YDeGKTDL/view?usp=sharing