This was a great hike and was done on Grandpa's birthday because he would have loved this one! We, of course, left our crampons in the car again because the day was much warmer than we expected (we were expecting freezing temperatures and snow). After the initial long rocky trail up to the truck trail, we started to run into patches of ice, and on the last couple of turns to go up the final part of the mountain (maybe the last 2 miles) there were very long stretches of snow and ice. Spikes would have been helpful because it did get very slippery at times, and I fell once on the way back down. Some of the ice is really close to the edges of the trail too, which can be dangerous, even when being careful. Lots of bobcat and deer tracks, and one of our group members did see a bobcat dart across the path in front of us! The peak was really open, lots of places to sit (picnic tables included), and a wide beautiful view of the surrounding mountains and observatory. Though the hike wasn't cold, I was glad we had warm layers for the peak because it got really chilly! One of the people in our group was even getting hypothermic sitting on the peak, but cracking a couple of “hot hands” helped! We made our way back down just before dark, probably spent a little too much time exploring the peak, but it was a really great time!