Set out Saturday morning planning to the Big Crow Basin loop as a 1-night overnight as outlined in Romano's 100 Backpacking Trips in WA. Went in aware that it was early season (given that it has been a high snow year), and ended up turning around and cutting the trip short at Scout Pass.
The trail was in good condition up to Kahuna peak. There is patchy, but sustained snow between Kahuna Peak and Scout Pass (including up to Norse peak). The trail is snow-covered for maybe 80% of the that section, and trailfinding was difficult/impossible. Ended up spending a lot of time off-route, and it was basically a scramble for this section. I brought an ice axe and microspikes. I would recommend microspikes (although I brought them and didn't use them). I used the ice axe for a section or two on the way down while off-route, but some people may have preferred to use it on the way up as well.
I expect it will be at least another 3 weeks before the trail is melted out and suitable for summer-style backpacking (as I was hoping to do). The snow patches are deep and cover at least 50% of the terrain (although it depends greatly on aspect).
Didn't see another soul while I was out there, which was nice, and probably helped by the mild snowstorm going on. Visibility was poor (except for in brief moments between clouds), which reduced routefinding on a snow-covered trail to mostly phone GPS-based navigation. Not fun, so I ended up turning around at Scout Pass when I saw that the PCT section between Scout Pass and Crowne Point was also similarly snow-covered.
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