TR -- 5/26 - 5/28 -- Kearsarge, snow and indecision
Posted: Thu May 31, 2012 10:00 pm
After marveling about how my trip to Miter Basin and Langley over the previous weekend (May 19 - 21) felt like mid-July, this trip started out feeling like mid-April.
That's Charlotte Dome, taken from the JMT heading into the bowl below Glen Pass
That's somewhere below Glen Pass, but just where is anyone's guess. Anyway, the prior weekend, when I arrived at Horseshoe Meadow in the morning, it was 60. Last Saturday, it was 30 when I got to Onion Valley, and got progressively colder as I hiked up to Kearsarge Pass. It was the first time I can remember my mustache freezing since I attended college in New Jersey!
This is the Glen Pass bowl the next morning:
I was hoping to make it over Glen Pass the first day, but I ran into a group that just came south over it, and they were claiming there was 2 feet of snow at the top and, anyway, I wouldn't have been able to make it down to Rae Lakes before dark. It was really slow going hiking over granite steps covered with snow (as I always say, there's nothing more dangerous than a trail). Then, the next morning I decided I still didn't need to deal with snow -- I'd just turn around and head the other direction on the JMT. I thought about going into Center Basin, but instead headed up towards Forester Pass.
That's Junction Peak in the center.
There were two large snow fields just before Forester Pass, and then I decided I didn't need to go through those either (the pass is at the center of the photo):
There were some rather Arctic looking scenes below the pass:
So I came back down to about 11,200 and camped near the pond on the large flat area at the top of tree line. A strange fog came through at sunset, that made me think I was still in L.A. (near the beach):
On the 3d and last day, I detoured around the Kearsarge Lakes, which really are quite lovely when no one is there. This is the lake above the 3 main Kearsarge Lakes, with University Peak in the background:
The Kearsarge Pinnacles:
And, finally, East Vidette, taken from Bullfrog Lake, and then a wider panorama from the a slightly different vantage point:
That's Charlotte Dome, taken from the JMT heading into the bowl below Glen Pass
That's somewhere below Glen Pass, but just where is anyone's guess. Anyway, the prior weekend, when I arrived at Horseshoe Meadow in the morning, it was 60. Last Saturday, it was 30 when I got to Onion Valley, and got progressively colder as I hiked up to Kearsarge Pass. It was the first time I can remember my mustache freezing since I attended college in New Jersey!
This is the Glen Pass bowl the next morning:
I was hoping to make it over Glen Pass the first day, but I ran into a group that just came south over it, and they were claiming there was 2 feet of snow at the top and, anyway, I wouldn't have been able to make it down to Rae Lakes before dark. It was really slow going hiking over granite steps covered with snow (as I always say, there's nothing more dangerous than a trail). Then, the next morning I decided I still didn't need to deal with snow -- I'd just turn around and head the other direction on the JMT. I thought about going into Center Basin, but instead headed up towards Forester Pass.
That's Junction Peak in the center.
There were two large snow fields just before Forester Pass, and then I decided I didn't need to go through those either (the pass is at the center of the photo):
There were some rather Arctic looking scenes below the pass:
So I came back down to about 11,200 and camped near the pond on the large flat area at the top of tree line. A strange fog came through at sunset, that made me think I was still in L.A. (near the beach):
On the 3d and last day, I detoured around the Kearsarge Lakes, which really are quite lovely when no one is there. This is the lake above the 3 main Kearsarge Lakes, with University Peak in the background:
The Kearsarge Pinnacles:
And, finally, East Vidette, taken from Bullfrog Lake, and then a wider panorama from the a slightly different vantage point: