The price is not rising slowly, there will be a crash.
A quick scan shows maybe 30k BTC on the open books of all the exchanges combined. And they've been evaporating quickly and not being replaced effectively. Looks to me like panic is starting to set in. Many people are probably feeling like if they don't get some BTC now, it will be to late and they'll have to pay much higher prices or simply be left behind...and they could be right.
If history repeats, or even rhymes, then there will certainly be a crash but it might be only to much higher levels than we see today, and might only last a brief time before it's next point of stability. Hopefully that will occur well into the 4-fig range in USD/BTC terms. We'll see.
