I had a 7 AM start at Slide Mountain Parking Area, and chose snowshoes a bit wider than 11 inches by 29 inches. It was negative 15 on the way through Willow, and I think about negative 10 degrees at the parking area. This was a somewhat spur of the moment hike, and was not dependent on cold temperatures since the snow did not have enough water content to freeze and therefore be supportive like in the spring.
The Slide trail was in good shape. I got through the mountaineering parts pretty well. Went around the Cornell Crack on the way out, but climbed it twice and descended it once on the way back because my sunglasses decided to slide off my head after I made it up.
Back to the other side of Cornell, I chose a line apparently at Dink elevation, because after a while there was daylight showing through the trees. So I went to the ridge, determined where I was, although difficult to tell. I decided that certain things I was seeing going up the mountain must be Friday, since they didn't look like what Balsam Cap would look like. Arrived at Friday. I didn't look at my time, but it felt kind of late.
The tracks from Friday to Balsam Cap to Rocky and to Lone were very helpful. I don't usually follow tracks through the thick evergreens, but since I felt I was behind, that's what I did. By the time I got to Lone, it was only 2:20, so back on track. There weren't too many tracks heading part way up Table and over to the col.
Getting to the Peekamoose/Table col, I was surprised to find the condition not as good as Friday to Lone. Some bare-booters had been at it, and not that many snowshoers in general.
Table to Denning was broken out, but I decided to bushwhack it. This is kind of a mistake, because you get down to the bottom and you have to walk what feels like a mile, to the side to get back to the trail for the river crossings. That turned into some energy loss, because of the breaking of trail.
Now its within I don't know, maybe 1/2 hour or so of getting dark and I get to see how the final push out of Denning will be. Of course its usually breaking trail, and I find the same. Bare-booters had made it up quite a ways, but it wasn't very helpful with my medium to large snowshoes, so I often just made my own track. Had a beautiful sunset when I would turn around, 3/4 of the way to Curtis Ormsbee cutoff.
Smooth sailing after Curtis Ormsbee, but I had to turn my light on since I don't like to hike in a broken trail without being able to see.