Took the winter route from Guanella pass. There were no existing paths through the willows so we followed the road. Overhead avalanche exposure didn't look too bad, was very dense trees. Right before the last switchback in the road, you can go straight through the trees rather than continue the road and do unnecessary uphill. Even more straight takes you right over an unnamed lake, recommend going around it rather than over it. Then you'll join the standard summer trail up and down.
Snow conditions were heavily wind effected, scoured one moment to loaded the next. Floatation recommended. I took skis and was able to skin up to 13600-ish, before it got too rocky and booted up. Skiing down was surprisingly fun, but involved dodging many rocks. On the way back, near the lake, our friends with snowshoes tried to cut the trail and head straight back, which immediately led to waist-deep post-holing even with snowshoes. Skis were fine though. Recommend staying on the hard packed trail. Took us 4 hours up and much longer than normal on the way down due to postholing (another 3.5 hours).
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