High Sierra Topix

Any trip reports or people that have been near the area? Particularly interested if the streams are passable on the way + any idea of how much snow may be sitting at the pass ~9000'.

Seeing how I was backpacking Yosemite last week and snow was showing up at 6800 feet, I would say presently the south facing slopes leading from the TH to the pass has at least patchy snow or more, but I can pretty much guarantee there is 100% coverage in the 10 Lakes basin, and it will stay that way for at least 2 weeks or more. Sheltered areas and north slopes will be the last areas to thaw out.

Check this during the day (View from Sentinel Dome):
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Back there beyond Tenaya canyon is 7500 feet and up, so if you can see snow back there, so shall there be snow up 10 Lakes way.

Decided to make a run on it despite the snow. I'd say we hit it perfect. Snow was melted enough that we could discern a trail but not too much where the streams were unpassable.

Snow starts pretty consistently at 8500 feet and there is still 6-7 feet at the pass. We passed a ranger on the way down who decided there was too much snow to complete his trip up to 10 lakes. He was pretty cool though in that he didn't discourage us from continuing.

We had to divert up dry rock spline as opposed to taking the 10 Lakes switch backs due to Half Moon Meadow being completely underwater and unpassable. We camped at the top of the spline for the first night as people were pretty beat from the snow and the rock scramble.

Next day we went light just to check out 10 Lakes Basin. The descent was still snow, ice, and slippery granite + the lakes were all still frozen over so we opted to climb some of the mountains around as opposed to go into the basin.

We climbed up the first ridge and got to 10,189 ft. The descent was awesome as it was boot skiing / butt sledding down nice soft snow. One of the coolest things about the trip is the amazing amount of snow algae everywhere. It's bright red and fanned out across the snow in amazing formations.

Despite not being able to get into the basin we had a great time hanging out around the pass, playing in the snow, and climbing some of the surrounding peaks. Our temporary campout (which later became permanent) had an awesome overlook of Half Moon Meadow and south towards Tioga Pass. When we got back to the Ranger station they said we were the first to report back from the pass all year which was cool. They were super appreciative and took notes of our trip for about 10 minutes. Unfortunatley they concluded that based on our report they were going to highly discourage people from attempting the basin until August.

Pics here.

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Hi Zkhowes

Welcome to HST!
Thanks for getting back to us with an update of the conditions, and for the photo's.

zkhowes wrote:Next day we went light just to check out 10 Lakes Basin. The descent was still snow, ice, and slippery granite + the lakes were all still frozen over so we opted to climb some of the mountains around as opposed to go into the basin.

Confirms what I'm thinking for my late July trip. Might have to push it out.

Thanks for the report!

Russ

Hi and thanks for the trip report. We are due to go in July 14th-18th. Was hoping to fly fish atleast one of the lakes - looks like that is a no go based on your report, but was wondering if all the lakes were still frozen over or if a couple might be clear? Thanks for any more info.

John