Defeat!
This is beautiful, but I think I'll have to turn back. There's too much snow, on steep paths. People may have come this way, but not in the last few days (May 17th was mentioned in the book in the hut, but it feels like they'd have left clearer footprints in the snow if they'd come this way).
I guess the summit may be accessible from the cable-car route (which starts on the east rather than the west side of the mountain where I'm camped), but along this path, now coming from the north and in the woods, the snow hasn't had a chance to melt!