Started off from Vincent Gap pretty early. I forget the exact time, but maybe somewhere from 7-8 am. Overall a wonderful hike, but a little gnarly toward the top.

Traffic: Keep in mind, this was on a Sunday morning, during a long weekend, immediately after a week of snow/rain, while the govt. was shut down. I left my house at 6am, and encountered virtually no traffic on my way there. Parked at the trailhead around 7:30am, and there were only like 4-5 other cars there. Getting off the mountain was a different story entirely. We got back to the parking lot around 1-1:30pm, and it was nuts. the lot was completely full, and people were grilling and having a good time with their families. People were parking all along the sides of the road, and in places this made getting by pretty sketchy, especially given the large amounts of people meandering around. The line of cars trying to get up the mountain stretched all the way back to CA-138, and they were hardly moving. Definitely get an early start on this one in order to beat the traffic if you're planning to do it on a weekend.

The Trail: There were little patches of icy snow on the trail almost immediately. Nothing hairy, but I put my microspikes on about 30 feet up the trail, and didn't regret it. There is a path through the snow for maybe 2 miles, then it got less well-defined, and we ended up just kind of following footsteps which eventually kind of went away as well. The last mile or so to the summit, we lost the footsteps, and just ended up going almost straight up the slope. Parts of that were pretty steep, and it was a bit of a smoker. We had a couple stretches where we were using our ice axes to climb up the slope. The snow itself was for the most part an icy crust on top of powder of varying depths. We didn't have much trouble post-holing until our descent in the late morning/early afternoon when the ice started to melt a little(another reason to get an early start). Once we finally hit the ridge line leading to the summit, the vertical climb mellowed out a little, but that ridge was pretty narrow(this was my first time up Baden-Powell, so I don't know how it usually is). The way down, we did a little more slipping and sliding, including a few little self-arrests with the ice axes. The trail started getting pretty slushy for about the last mile or 2 to the parking lot.

Gear: The two guys I ended up hiking with were able to do the whole thing in microspikes with ice axes, and I'd say that both of those are probably required to get to the summit right now. I ended up slapping my crampons on, and if you have a pair, definitely bring them. they made the climb and descent much easier. On our way down, we encountered lots of people who had been turned around by the conditions closer to the top(mostly the lack of a trail), and a few hikers in sneakers. As far as clothing goes, everyone is different, but it does get a bit cold and windy up at the top. I was wearing a t-shirt with a long sleeve poly-pro underneath for the climb, as well as some hiking pants. When we got to the top, I threw on a puffy jacket and some gloves, but took the puffy off as soon as we started going back down, since I tend to get pretty hot when I'm moving around. You're going to want some sunglasses as well, since it was pretty bright up on top.

TL;DR: Get there early, bring microspikes and ice axe at minimum, crampons if you have them. Be prepared for the trail to essentially disappear around a mile from the top. Don't feel bad about turning back if you feel uncomfortable or if it becomes unsafe. You have all year to climb this sucker, and it isn't going anywhere.

Also! This was essentially my first snow hike up a mountain, so I am by no means an expert. This is just the opinions of a novice, not a seasoned mountaineer. Be safe up there!