Our group of 4 did the main trail on the 9th. We started at 4am.. By the time we were about half way into hike we had put our crampons on. On this day we saw a total of about 25-30 people out on trail. Most had microspikes but we chose crampons. It was very icy and snow eventually got pretty deep. The switchbacks were around 2-21/2 feet deep snow. Went around them straight up. Very slow moving trying to stay in previous formed steps only to fall straight thru to waist deep snow at least a hundred times. Trail crest was around 2 feet deep. Real dangerous on back side. 1 guy dropped out at this time from sickness and exhaustion. We are in great shape but it took us 10 1/2 hrs to get to summit. 17 hrs total. 2 people went to ER next day from snow blindness.
