Despite some fresh snow, conditions are still good. The hike up Bierstadt was clean until about 13,000' (roughly, I forgot to check), where the snow began. However, walking on it with just boots was perfectly safe, although pre-dawn some of the packed sections were quite slippery. The east side of the Sawtooth Ridge was almost completely dry. The only part with snow was when we crossed back over to the west side to climb up to the ridge towards Evans. There was a little bit of exposure there, but we took it slow and crossed with no problem. The rest of the route to Evans was snowy and icy, but again totally doable in hiking boots.
One thing to note is that it took us much longer than anticipated. Not sure if that has to do with experience or the route itself, but it took us over 3 hours to traverse from Bierstadt to Evans (2 hours on the Sawtooth alone), which caused us to get caught in a storm on the descent. The gully was fine, but once we descended into the valley, it was swampy and wet. We sunk into the mud up to our knees a couple of times running back to the trailhead to avoid the storm. There was heavy rain at this time, so I'm not sure if it is better on a dry day. We started at 5am, which was probably too late to do this route (added Spalding too, but that added maybe 20 min), so start early and enjoy!
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