We day hiked the main trail yesterday (6/6). We left the portal at 2am, summitted at 9, and were back by 3pm. Here are the details most were asking about:

-switch backs still full of snow. Several people tried them, they all bailed for the chute.
-The chute requires crampons early in the day. Despite what NOAA says the trail is still freezing above 12,000 ft at night. We came across lots of recently frozen puddles on our hike in, and the snow was rock hard. The chute is relatively easy to get up when it's frozen if you have crampons. Later in the day when it turns to mashed potatoes you can probably get up with boots if you don't mind slipping every other step.
-After trail crest there is still snow and ice on the trail. After 9am it gets pretty slick.
-Glissading in the afternoon is easy and fun!
-Don't glissade all the way to the bottom of the chute. It's very hard to find the trail and you may end up on a rock scramble for 40 min that makes your hiking partner mad at you. Pick out your end point from the top!

My advice is to get to the chute at dawn and use crampons to get up. Then glissade down after the sun has softened the snow. Do NOT attempt to glissade if a shadow is on the chute.

Conditions are great, have fun everybody!

Last edited by Richmond; 06/07/16 07:16 AM.