I made a climb, part cross-country and part on firebreak to Monte Cristo Peak from Monte Cristo CG, then took the east firebreak down a little and then up from Monte Cristo Peak. I could have gone directly up the very steep south firebreak, but I did not want to take the chance in the slippery snow, so I joined the dirt road that passes west of Iron's summit. There were areas with over 7" of snow in the shadier sides of Iron, and 2"-3" or so on the sunnier side. I then went to a less steep firebreak on the north side of Iron Mountain and made the last push up the less steep but still deep in snow north ridge. The summit views are FANTASTIC!! It was worth the minor postholing from time to time to make it to this fantastic, lesser known of the "3 Iron Mountains" of Angeles National Forest. I then made the whole trip a loop by rejoining the fireroad, turned left down canyon to another fireroad that led back to Monte Cristo Campground via Monte Cristo Canyon, a spectacular tributary canyon of Mill Creek! The whole hike entailed about 5.3 miles round-trip with about 1,700'-1,800' elevation gain, with mostly class-1 hiking except for an extremely steep cross-country ascent to Monte Cristo Peak's ridge, where there was no rock scrambling, but I still had to grab onto some chaparral shrub branches for balance, so portions of the initial climb was roughly class-2. Fantastic hike, so I have to highly recommend this one!!