10/12, Saturday. 10 of us (8 women, 2 guys, 2 no-shows) met at Northgate P&R at 5am. Shazia, also an event organizer of this group, is the last one to arrive. We (1 truck, 2 SUVs) didn't drive out until 20 minutes later. Sun rose as we approached Stevens Pass. Reconvened at the gas station at Coles Corner. The road to Spider Meadow / Phelps Creek TH is rough, high clearance vehicle recommended. About 10 cars in the parking lot.After a long introduction and everyone's most recent tough trail (I was the only one who didn't mention a climb), we marched onto the trail, or rather a flat and wide logging road. ~3.5 miles and only 200' gain from TH, we reached the junction of Leroy Creek trail. A needed bio-break for me, as my tummy was bugging me. Up to the right, ~2100' gain in 1.5 miles, especially steep the first mile. However, because Shazia was lagging behind, Alex made her lead in front. This rendered the hike very relaxed. I didn't even sweat, while still wearing a fleece jacket. In fact, I only realized the steepness when hiking down the next day. Maggie complained a few times because she was getting cold due to the slow pace. We didn't arrive at Leroy Basin until ~1:45pm, 2 hours behind schedule if we were to climb Seven Fingered Jack in the afternoon.
At ~6200', Leroy Basin has quite a bit of snow. We encountered snow from ~5500' and up. I managed to find a good campsite without snow among a few short larch trees, away from the rest 7 tents who were clustered together in the open. After setting up my tent, I headed up the wide gully between Seven Fingered Jack and Maude, with some water and a rain jacket. Alex gave me a walkie-talkie. He actually radioed me a couple of times when I was in the trees. Going up the gully on rocks appeared to be easier than in the trees, where the trail is. On the way back, I decided to look for the trail, got somewhat bushy at times. I hit the trail not far from the camp.
After a very early dinner, and a few pages of my library book, the sun came out. So I walked up the west slope to wait for sunset. Gave up after an hour, clouds were too thick. I hung out with the group till ~6:30pm, when half of us went to bed. Alex planned to head out at 6:00 the next morning. I hung my food on a dead tree, and fetched water for tomorrow, set alarm, and read till ~9pm.The night wasn't cold. Near full moon. Bright.
10/13, Sunday. Woke up before my alarm. It was raining pretty hard with sleet. Just before 6:00, I walked to the group with just my umbrella. I was told to stay in the tent, wait for the rain to stop. A few minutes later, Alex came over and told me that we'd make another call at 8:00. The rain tapered off shortly after 7. We decided to give Maude a try. Took sometime for everyone to get ready. We started just before 8am.
The trail was obvious first, then, cairns, sometimes multiple cairns indicating different paths, sometimes nothing with increasing snow. Maggie has done the climb in the summer, so we knew the general direction. Larch was very good, all the way to the first low saddle ~6800'. 
There, the path turns from south to east, heading up, until a saddle ~7600', where you can see the east side of the ridge and Upper Ice Lake below (which we couldn't see until on our way back). The last push to the saddle requires some scrambling. No more trees, just rocks and A lot of snow.
Part of my group decided to turn back. Alex stayed with them. I almost went back. Sung lead the rest of us walk down the knee deep snow. It's fortunate that the snow was soft. Some of us took ice axes out. Note, we were all already wearing helmets, good to keep my head warm. We dropped more than 200' instead of what's shown on the map, until more or less flat, and then traversed the slope to the far side, and regained the ridge. In summer, you could walk along the ridge, but now there was cornice, below that, the snow was a bit hard. Sung made steps below the ice in shifting gravel. Luckily that it was wet and a bit sticky. We all made it through, and regained the ridge again in softer snow. From there on, is just rock, not too steep, but windy. Saw a pair of ptarmigans here on the way down, plump in their white coat. Erica saw one of them move out of her way and shouted "a bird". Otherwise, I wouldn't have seen them. Well camouflaged in the snow.
On the summit ridge, you cross to the west side again, and that was very windy. We couldn't see a thing on the top (9082'). I turned back down right away. It was 1pm. Fortunately, the clouds parted a bit on our way out, so we could actually see Ice Lake and the larch studded hills beyond. 
Beautiful.Nita suffered from the altitude, was throwing up from time to time. Yuvaraj and I stayed with her, since we are slower than the other three. Sung radioed Alex about our progress at times. Towards the end, Alex came looking for us, while we were bushwhacking. The 4 of them who were waiting, already packed up. I filtered water for Nita, Sung (who gave her water bottle to Nita) and myself. Nita packed my tent. We were quite fast, and sped down Leroy Creek trail, and caught up the other 4 at the junction. Reached TH at 7:45pm, in headlamp. All safe.
Total 44K steps.
I had a great time. The temperature was warmer than I expected, everyone was helpful. Even though the weather wasn't optimal, the scenery was still breathtaking. I don't think I'd be able to summit Maude without the group.
