Laura,
I could not have said it any better. My last SoCal snow trip convinced me winter was over in these parts. The snow was not worth the fight. However, there are still freezing temperatures at upper reaches of the Sierra making climbing fun in the morning and glissading semi-safe in the early to mid afternoon.
One more paragraph of advice to those using these tools for the first time at Mt. Whitney...Don't leave your crampons on when glissading and don't sit your rear end down on any type of plastic bag while glissading. Doing either can put you into Southern Inyo Hospital or worse.
