A great trip report. Thanks for the details. I will be attempting a summit on the 21st and still wondering if I will need to bring an ice axe. I will be using trekking poles and will probably have crampons.
I felt safe with ice axe. Pretty good chance there will be snow on the trail by the Trail crest as well as at the cables around 21st.
There were 4 of us and we had one trekking pole and one ice axe each.
