It really depends on the conditions. We took a rope, snow stakes, harness but didn’t use them in the end. We climbed a snow neve on the eastern (Rees) side of the East peak in ealy Dec some years ago. This gave steep but otherwise straightforward access to NW ridge that then leads easily to the summit. On descent we went down the gut that seems to be the recommended and cairned route from the huts. We would have liked to use the rope as it is very steep with horrible runout. We encountered some ice and quite a bit of freshish snow. Consequently we couldn’t find any useful belay anchors for slings. There were old remnants of slings encased in ice as we went down but i wasn’t keen to use them. We got down slowly but safely in crampons. Allen Higgins did the same descent later that summer without any snow on the descent route. I think they used a rope.
We climbed from the highest bivvy rock (sleeps 2/3 people or one small tent) on the way up and walked out to our car at end of Rees track in about 13 hrs. We had very calm and sunny conditions, with relatively firm snow.
I’d recommend taking full kit – it would be a shame not to climb it just because of a lack of gear. if its any consolation I just carried rope/harness/crampons on my xmas trip and never got to use them.
