By really great weather I mean we had < 5hrs of "bad weather".
It was clear, sunny, with < 15mph wind almost the entire time we were on the mountain.
As for underwhelmed I think it was a few things.
1. The route was very well established similar to what you see on DC in the late season. Stepped out, fixed lines/pro everywhere, tons of people that IMO had no business being on the mountain. (Learning to walk in crampons at 14,000', no glacier travel experience, etc)
2. The group wasn't nearly as experienced or fast as I was expecting. I had only extensively climbed with 1/3 them before so was going in a little blind. With that, we moved quite inefficiently, took more rest days, and in general made more conservative decisions as a group. By the end of the trip I was going a little stir crazy twiddling my thumbs instead of actively doing something.
- For reference, most groups spend 2 days at 17k camp. We spent 6.
- Our biggest day was ~3,500' gain over ~5 miles(Without sleds) at an average speed of ~0.4 mph
3. I'm not the biggest fan of camping/backpacking in general. To put it differently, I'm much more interested in Alpinism(fast & light) than I am in Mountaineering(slow & heavy). For example, I'd much rather C2C Rainier than spend 5 days climbing it. With that, this trip could have conservatively been done in 10 days given the weather we had vs the 21 it took us.
-----
Not suffering enough is probably pretty accurate. I was expecting something that would challenge me and force me grow as a climber. Instead it felt a bit like an amusement park where there was little actual skill/suffering to make it to the summit.
I've faced harder conditions and more engaging climbing on the South side of Hood...
It was a great trip just left a lot on the table for me.
It did however give me quite the appetite for some Alaskan Mountains.
These are on my short list now:
Moose's Tooth - Ham & Eggs
Mt. Hunter - Bacon & Eggs
I'm probably a season or two out before I can confidently lead WI4 in an alpine setting but I'll get there. At least I have some new goals :)