Bring Crampons.
We started at 2:15am. The beginning of the ascent from just before Crater Lake was clear of snow until we neared the entrance to the basin. Some large snowfields covered the trail and some route finding was necessary in the darkness. The basin was almost entirely filled with a stable snowfield. The snow here saved us a lot of time vs. scrambling over talus. As the angle increased near the top of the basin, we put on our crampons and continued to make good time. Things got steep as we began ascending the chute that leads up to the saddle. Crampons and ice axes were a must here. The ice was steep, and so hard in places that it wasn't possible to kick footholds. It is possible to climb the talus off to the side of the snowfields, but there was no way to avoid crossing steep, hard ice slopes, so crampons would still be necessary either way. While the snow was mostly consolidated, we did punch through a hard crust into popcorn snow in a few places. Avalanche danger is still present. I saw one small patch let go on the east side of the ridge as I came back down from the peak. From the saddle to the peak I was able to stay on rock for about 60% of the climb, but it was necessary to constantly put on and take off my crampons to cross steep, exposed, snowfields. The snow was getting softer as we headed back down. We did some post holing, but other places, were still too hard to safely descend even with crampons, so we ended up moving over to the talus fields for most of the descent into the basin. Once in the basin, the snow was solid and not too steep. We were able to glissade most of the basin on the way back down.
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