C2C conditions

[CardinalWildcat]

I'm planning a trip for a group of 4 hikers for Saturday 5/13. Anyone know what the conditions are like for the C2C trail currently? None of us have done the trail before, but have excellent baseline fitness (marathoners and cyclists) with good hiking experience.

-Will we need spikes for snowy/icy conditions?
-Are there are areas of the trail that are particularly hard to find?

[templar]

I went to the summit yesterday and we got maybe 2 inches of snow. Enough to make it beautiful, not enough to make any real difference. Did the whole C2C in regular running shoes. A few icy area that are slippery but not near any drop offs and you'll be fine as long as you watch your footing. I slipped and fell about 4 times but no damage.

There are several places on the skyline where I got off trail (the worst area was about 2 miles in when I realized this can't be the trail cause I'm basically climbing over boulders using my hands) Most of the side trails rejoin the main trail and most I figured out I was on the wrong trail after 1-2 minutes. I would recommend you download a GPS track from a previous hiker and use an app to follow it. I did and I still got "lost" a few times. The first mile after round valley has a lot of snow and I got lost again for a bit until I found Wellman's divide. From there it's pretty smooth sailing. I use OruxMaps on my phone but I think having a good app, and knowing how to use a map and compass are pretty useful for C2C because the trails aren't super easy to follow at several points.