If you have the luxury of picking your days- pay attention to the weather and wind conditions and stay away from weekends during ANY part of the year. Starting your day waiting in line at the tram with frustrated/anxious people is a real downer.

Regardless, the Tram access does limit how crowded this place can get at the top. Even on a jam packed day, it's just a short walk away from the crowds. Especially if you hit the woodsy areas of Long Valley and less popular trails. The majority of people using the tram are doing the short loop or heading for the peak. The other trails are mostly empty.

Snowshoeing is absolutely breathtaking up here. Trail can be extremely difficult to find in the snow if you're breaking trail. I highly recommend a paper map and mapping apps with redundancy. Micro-spikes are a better option if the trail has been beat down. Half the time I go up planning to snow-shoe, I wind up staying in Micro-Spikes.

The emergency shelter at the top is freezing cold and breezy to say the least with all of the spaces between the rocks. You would be better off in a tent in most cases. Extreme wind convinced me to shelter there one January evening and the wind blew snow into the shelter all evening. Final Note: I wouldn't even consider using the shelter on a summer evening - full of people with the same brilliant idea. Only worth attempting if you believe you're the only one on the mountain.

Consider trekking from Idylwilde. The trails are beautiful and the slower pace is a great barrier to altitude sickness. I DO believe you need some sort of trail permit. Do your research ahead of time.