Waterfall route, right hand side ramp condition ..... Poke O Moonshine

Does anyone have recent knowledge of what condition the "access ramp" is like, the ramp which is on the right hand side of the Waterfall route at Poke-O, the one  people use to travel upwards to set up top-ropes ?

Can you make it to the top (safely) hiking up ... or is it so iced up that you would need to rope up, and use protection to make it up safely ??? 

Thanks .... must have been a beautiful day at Poke-O today.

Also curious about that ramp.

When I go up it, I use crampons and one tool. I've never used or seen anyone use protection and a rope, but you could depending on how much ice vs snow there is. There is a fixed rope up the left for a portion of it. Depending on the ice, there can be a few bulges that having a tool is nice for. Hope that's helpful.

Brian Douglas wrote:

When I go up it, I use crampons and one tool. I've never used or seen anyone use protection and a rope, but you could depending on how much ice vs snow there is. There is a fixed rope up the left for a portion of it. Depending on the ice, there can be a few bulges that having a tool is nice for. Hope that's helpful.

Very helpful .... I thought ascending the ramp was a routine crampon hike up(like you describe) until I saw one pic showing the entire ramp as a solid ice flow, made me wonder about roping up. Thanks for your info !