Brief report:
Started out at 5:30am Saturday (April 5) from the Baxter Pass trailhead with overnight packs. First encountered snow at approx 7600' just by the Bighorn Sheep boundary sign. Thsi wooden sign is nailed down a leafless tree. All 3 stream crossings were passable. Got to camp around 11:30am or so....and by 12:30pm I started out climbing the north couloir. This snow chute is gentle enough (at about 30 to 35 degrees) to practice crampon work on. Lower down in the couloir, surface conditions were great for crampon work, however, up higher closer to the notch there was knee-deep snow. I plowed through this stuff and finally topped out on the notch. Then, I took my crampons off and headed southward on misleading/false summits. After about 1/2 hour up there, I finally managed to find the true south summit of Mount Mary Austin. You'll know when you reach the top when you see a green army-type rectangular metal register box. By the way, there currently is no pen or pencil to sign the summit log notebook. I reached the summit at the late hour of 3:45pm. After snapping a few pictures, I left the summit at 4:00pm. I came down via the north couloir and was back in camp at 5:15pm. Went to bed pretty much after sun down. During the night, winds picked up and by 7:00am Sunday (April 6) we had quite a bit of gusty winds. Broke camp and headed back down to the Baxter Pass trailhead. All in all, I enjoyed the north chute of Mt. Mary Austin. It's a nice snow climb in early season.
Additional info about climbing Mt. Mary Austin can be found here.