We hiked to Consultation Lake on 6/7 and summitted 6/8. The snow on the trail is no longer quite so bad as shown in the picture above but it is not for the timid.
The two girls in our group wore trail spikes in some but not all stretches and I would recommend them. I used one hiking stick and had a little assistance from my sister at one location on the SB.
It can certainly be done without spikes poles or picks, but in my opinion it is a bit foolish to do so (yes, I was foolish). In many places where the snow is the worst outcome of a slip could be fatal. So while the likelyhood of a slip is not great, the cost of a slip is.
There is still much snow at trail camp (Consultation Lake) so many of the places where you might pitch a tent are not usable, but dry locations can be found.
We saw no more than a six people climbing the chute on Sunday morning (we reached the PCT at 7:30 AM) and saw nobody glissading though we did see some sliders on Sunday afternoon from trail camp. The snow looked like it may have been to soft in the afternoons for glissading.
