Alpine Scramble - Meany Crest

A moderate 7.5 hour walk to Meany Crest and back.  Hong and Bruce identified most of the plants and trees in bloom along the route.  A couple of Park Service rangers were using a chainsaw to clear a huge tree from the trail.  They made some beautiful cuts.  The Wonderland trail is nearly snow free.  The Summerland basin has good snow coverage.  We alternated between the rocks and the snow field on our ascent.  We broke through the snow pack in a couple of places.  We viewed Mt. Rainier, Goat Rocks and Mt. Stuart from the summit while we enjoyed a cool breeze and sunny, clear skies.  There are numerous beautiful figure 8 tracks in the snow pack.  We glissaded the basin immediately below Meany Crest, and then alternated between the rocks and glissading on the descent.  Bruce and Hong understand better the back country skiers attitude of "Why would you walk down?"  We identified the solutions to a number of critical issues on the walk back to the trailhead.