The day after a March blizzard, a friend and I set off from the ADK Loj for an attempt on Mt. Marshall. Avalanche Lake was frozen solid, enabling us to avoid the chutes and ladders of the established trail and hike directly across the lake ice. The steep walls of the gorge were spectacular, but also funneled the bitter wind directly into our faces. We reached the base of Mt. Marshall later than expected, and discovered that the trail had not been broken recently. We forged on nonetheless, and after losing the trail we opted to hike directly up the stream bed, frequently postholing into waist deep snow. It was tough work, but we eventually gained the ridge towards the summit. The cloudy morning had turned into a bluebird afternoon. After more bushwhacking and several awkward struggles to remove ourselves from multiple spruce traps, we reached a false summit with nice views of the McIntyre Range and Mt. Colden. We were painfully close to the true summit, but separated by a steep bowl full deep snow (and no doubt more spruce traps). Satisfied with a nice view, we opted to turn towards home. After sunset, a waxing gibbous moon gave us enough light to hike out without headlamps.