Started at around 8:30 AM and there were only two other cars at the parking lot. Trail was steep as expected and we hit first snow patches at the 'meadow' at around 3,700ft. The rest of the trail was dry until we were at the basin at around 5,000ft where it's mostly snow covered.
We didn't have difficulties following the trail until we got off route near The Horn. We decided to backtrack towards a small creek, crossed it and found the root system on climber's left which was the correct route.
At the basin, we followed fresh bootpack towards a steep slope at around 5,600ft. Saw a group of 4 descended from that slope. Slope didn't look great with some moats and a fall would be consequential. Tried to scramble the rock on climber's right but it didn't look good either. We backtracked and went up the same route that the other group used to descend. It worked but required some awkward transitions to rock.
After that, we went up the partially melted ramp to the final ridge and the route to the summit block was mostly snow free. We chose the climber's left option below the summit that took us to a class 3-4 section with good holds. Made it to the summit and had a short lunch break.
On the way down, we took a different route after the ramp, which seemed to be the standard summer route. This route was way better with less moat and more protected with small trees at the bottom.
Overall, it took us way longer to descend as we brought a friend who never did this kind of technical trip before and they got a major anxiety that we had to coach them for most of the descent.
Stats: 3mi roundtrip, over 11 hours total, over 3K elevation gain.
Brought traction but never used them as snow was pretty soft. Ice ax was necessary.
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