I'm thinking of going up the main trail whenever the road gets cleared and the weather looks nice. Right now, I'm not even planning on trying for the summit. Rather, I might just spend the night @ Trail camp, goof around on the Chute the next morning, and then hike back.
I've been up every which way from every direction (except for E buttress) in alpine & summer conditions. In fact, I was just up last spring - see site for trip report. What I really like about winter/spring conditions is the full snow pack down to LP lake. It's nice hiking on hard packed snow, and you get to take all kinds of "creative" short-cuts. But perhaps what's best is the TC area can be completely pristine. No summer slum, just a beautiful high alpine bowl surrounded by the high peaks.
What's really great is that while the local SoCal mountains - including roads - get absolutely mobbed whenever there is snow, the Sierra (outside of the ski resorts) are relatively unscathed. Also, by an odd quirk of fate - and a lot of geology - the WZ is only 4 hours from my house. So, I can jam up there in 4 hours and be in incredible high Sierra territory, or drive 2 and fight crowds with only marginal "high" alpine conditions. (San J @ 10.8 is great, but camping @ TC alone is 12k.)
