Returned home from Whitney after camping at Trail Camp Friday night and summiting on Saturday.
Weather was absolutely perfect and enough snow has melted to follow the trail to just above Mirror Lake. From there, the route to Trail Camp and beyond was mushy snow with lots of boot traffic.
The chute to Trail Crest was an adventure - we tackled it early on Saturday hoping to get to Trail Crest by 9 am before the snow on the slope softened. Back side is mostly clear of snow with one snowfield over the last 200 feet or so before the summit.
Crampons not needed on the back side but definitely helpful to travel the chute. I saw all sorts of approaches to the chute including crampons, microspikes and plain old hiking boots. Given the recent weather - 20s at night and 30s during the day - our plan was to ascend at first light and descend mid day. People who ascended mid day fought the snow and post holing from Trail Camp to Trail Crest. I would not have wanted to ascend the chute in early morning firm conditions without crampons and an ice axe.
We glissaded down the slope on the way back and the snow melt in mid-afternoon kept the speed comfortably slow and the pants uncomfortably wet!
The cables on the switchbacks are visible but the trail below the cables is buried in snow. From what I could see, there were no tracks leading up to the cables. Likely that the trail at the cables has not melted enough for easy passage and it is probably very icy should you chose to climb to it.
Plenty of campsites were open (not snow covered) through Trail Camp and water was available at all of the usual spots including the pond by the slabs at Trail Camp.
As usual met a bunch of interesting people and had a tremendous time. Hope this is helpful and here are some pictures -
The trail below Trail Camp
Trail Camp
The Chute at sunrise
The Chute
The Summit
The snowfield just before the Summit
"Turtles, Frogs & other Environmental Sculpture"