We started hiking at 445 am to make a early crossing of Forester pass and the walk up was awesome. I was a little worried about having issues with the altitude, but it turned out to not be a problem. We got stuck behind a slow moving group for a little bit but we snuck by them by avoiding a snowfield that they were hiking across. We managed to skip a pile of annoying switchbacks by going up a snowslope on microspikes. The last little bit had an icy chute with a nasty fall, but our microspikes made it a non issue. Can’t imagine doing it without traction devices though. Saw a pika at the top cheering us on (or maybe telling us to feed him).