The sway factor is heavy and the big towers are looming. Steady.

It is cold, gray, windy and raw at the summit. Winter is not through with us. But the conditions were among the most brutal of the winter so far. To say it was "firm and ugly" would not be an overstatement. That said, there were likely places where the wind-driven snow had piled up into layers of tiny foam balls, but they were elusive. Heat and wind don't do the snowpack many favors. But there seems to be some storminess ahead.