I was surprised how little snow was on this route! You could probably even do it with sneakers but maybe your feet would get a little wet. There was maybe one location where someone had postholed, but the hard work is already done for you :-) and the holes were hard/solid. On the descent, some of the snow had softened up and was a little slushy/mashed potatoes. Gaters, traction, poles all stayed in my pack. There were some icy sections but they were on mostly flat ground. From the end of the class 1 trail to the cairned scramble to the summit was very windy! Those in our group more familiar with wind speeds said ~50 mph? The gusts sometimes knocked us off balance. But there were lots of shelters built from rocks at the summit and they blocked the wind perfectly. It was kind of cold in the wind and I put on snowpants and sweater/fleece/windbreaker over my long underwear. The views from the summit were some of the best I have seen in Colorado.
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