Chasm Lake hike/lake conditions?

I'm thinking of heading up to Chasm Lake in RMNP. I'd like some ice in the water, but not frozen solid. Is this too early? Too late? Trail conditions? Is this hike a bad idea to do the first time at night(sunrise shot)? Paging Mr. Stensland...

Thanks to anyone for some info.

Josh

Josh, my bet is your too late for ice. But still lots of snow up there. Your requesting route info into Chasm at the exact time where it can go either way as far as the traversing across the sketchy Mt Washington slope into Chasm. Some years it's passable without crapping your pants in late May, some years it's just too dicey without an ice ax and crampons. It was a really nice snow year for The Park, so keep that in mind. I gave up shooting snow scenes in April/May due to yucky dirty snow. All snow scenes in May will suffer from winter months of blowing dust. In April/May all that dust still exists while the pretty snow melts away, thus consolidating into a streaky redish snow. However, I'm always interested in Chasm Lake shot with clouds!

These are the times where the Desert sings, while the mountains transition.

I remember there still being ice along the edges of Chasm Lake in the first week of July about 30 years ago.

Hi Josh, just read a trip report for Longs Peak on 14ers.com. Chasm is still iced over and there's still a load of snow on the Mt Washington slope. Have a look.

Cool, thanks for the heads up, Kane. I didn't even think about looking over there for info. Looks like I need to find some crampons in the next couple weeks.